Psalm 119

Psalm 119: A Timely Refuge

“In the midst of a London season; in the stir and turmoil of a political crisis, 1819; William Wilberforce writes in his Diary ‘Walked from Hyde Park Corner repeating the 119th Psalm in great comfort’.” (William Alexander, in "The Witness of the Psalms") But this was not just an ordinary man. William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was first a Christian and then an abolitionist and philanthropist. “He was first educated at Hull Grammar School under Joseph Milner, an evangelical Anglican minister. His father died when Wilberforce was nine, and his mother sent him to stay near London where he was reared by an evangelical aunt and uncle. Through their influence, he came to faith at the age of 12. In this home he came into contact with such men as George Whitefield, the great evangelist, and John Newton, who had converted from a life of a slave trade, and ultimately penned the hymn Amazing Grace.”

In it "we have nothing of David or Solomon, of Moses or Aaron, of Egypt or the journey through the wilderness; nothing of Jerusalem, or Mount Zion, or Ephrata; of the temple, or the altar, of the priests or the people. It consists of the holy effusions of a devout soul, in a state of closet retirement, unbosoming itself in blessed communion with its God, and descanting on the holy cycle of His attributes, and the consolations of His revealed will under every trial to which man can be exposed.” (John Mason Good ,1764-1827) Yet, he speaks generally of these.

“Subject.—The 119th Psalm is the appropriate sermon, after the Hallel, on the text which is its epitome (Psa 1:1-2), ‘Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly …but his delight is in the law of the Lord.’ Except in two verses (Psa 119:122 and Psa 119:132), the law is expressly extolled in every verse.” (Andrew Robert Fausset, 1876) “A lesson full of meaning is silently conveyed lo those who shall receive it that the conveyance of the things of God to the human spirit is in no way damaged or impeded…” (Isaac Taylor, 1787-1865) “This is a psalm by itself, it excels them all [all of the other Psalms], and shines brightest in this constellation. It is much longer than any of them; more than twice as long as any of them. It is not making long prayers that Christ censures; but making them for a pretence; which intimates that they are in themselves good and commendable.” (Matthew Henry, 1662-1714)

Herein is "the Christians's golden A B C of the praise, love, power, and use of the Word of God.’” (Franz Delitzsch, 1871.) It is "disposed according to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, perhaps to intimate that children, when they begin to learn their alphabet, should learn that Psalm.” (Nathanael Hardy, 1618-1670) “The Psalm is alphabetical. Eight stanzas commence with one letter, and then another eight with the next letter, and so the whole Psalm proceeds by octonaries quite through the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.” (C. H. Spurgeon) And perhaps it repeats each letter eight times, because eight is the number of eternity or everlasting life. “These reflections are interspersed with petitions, in which the Psalmist, deeply feeling his natural infirmity, implores the help of God for assistance to walk in the way mapped out for him in the divine oracles.” (French of Armand de Mestral, 1856)

“Some have said of this psalm, he that shall read it considerately, it will either warm him or shame him; and this is true.” (Matthew Henry) “For we [especially David) are to God,” Paul explained, “the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” (2 Corinthians 2:15-16) “Blessed are they who can read and understand these saintly aphorisms; they shall find golden apples in this true Hesperides, and come to reckon that this Psalm, like the whole Scripture which it praises, is a pearl island, or, better still, a garden of sweet flowers.” (C. H. Spurgeon) This psalm “applies an all containing medicine to the varied spiritual diseases of men sufficing to perfect those who long for perfect virtue, to rouse the slothful, to refresh the dispirited…” (William De Burgh,1860)

Though penned by David, it is fulfilled in the Greater than David. ”It is filled with the language of praise the paean (a thing that expresses enthusiastic praise) of victory, ‘just and true are thy ways’ (Revelation 15:3); the cry of the angel of the waters, ‘Thou art righteous, O Lord!’ (Revelation 16:5); the voice of much people in heaven, ‘True and righteous are his judgments’ (Revelation 19:2);… ‘Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments’ (Psalms 119:137).” (William Alexander, in "The Quiver", 1880.) “There may be something more than fancy in the remark, that Christ's name, ‘the Alpha and Omega’ equivalent to declaring Him all that which every letter of the alphabet could express may have had a reference to the peculiarity of this Psalm, a Psalm in which (with the exception of Psalms 119:84; Psalms 119:122) every verse speaks of God's revelation of Himself to man.” (Andrew A. Bonar, 1859.)

Lessons in righteousness for us- “As all moral instruction is delightsome, therefore this Psalm, because excelling in this kind of instruction, should be called delightsome, inasmuch as it surpasses the rest. The other Psalms, truly, as lesser stars shine somewhat; but this burns with the meridian heat of its full brightness, and is wholly resplendent with moral loveliness.” (Johannes Paulus Palanterius, 1600) “It is like the celestial city which lieth four square, and the height and the breadth of it are equal. Many superficial readers have imagined that it harps upon one string, and abounds in pious repetitions and redundancies; but this arises from the shallowness of the reader's own mind.” (C. H Spurgeon)

Psalm 119: Aleph א '

1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law (torah or teachings) of Yahweh! 2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies (eduth), who seek Him with the whole heart! 3 They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. 4 You have commanded us to keep Your precepts (pikkudim) diligently. 5 Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes (chukkot)! 6 Then I would not be ashamed, when I look into all Your commandments (mitzvah). 7 I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments (mishpatim). 8 I will keep Your statutes (chukkot); Oh, do not forsake me utterly!

After the Hallels (Psalms 113-118), the question now before us is, “Who will persevere to the end and thus be saved, joining Jesus in paradise?”

Ttitle. "Aleph" is Jesus— our Creator. And He is also "Tav"— the end of or faith, our Redeemer. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:1-5) "In beginning created Elohim (aleph tav- untranslated) the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) He is not just Creator but Redeemer.

“’Blessed are the undefiled in the way’— the true Israelites, in whom is no guile, “who walk in the Torah of Yahweh,’ blameless. Torah or teachings of Yahweh are here presented for our consideration. “Torah” is derived from a root that was used in the realm of archery, yareh (ירה), which means to shoot an arrow. The Torah goes forth to from heaven to earth that “all our movements may be regular, going on unto perfection: Mat 5:48; 1Co 14:20; Jas 1:4; Heb 6:1.” (Martin Geier) Those with a regard for these teaching, who not only believe in Jesus , but also desire to do His Word, are “in the way, not a way, any chance or uncertain road, but ‘the King's Highway.'” (Theodoret) “The idea behind the word is to inform, instruct, direct, or guide. In Jewish tradition it is most frequently used to designate the text of the first five books of the Bible, also called the Pentateuch.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) “The blessedness of the undefiled, or, as the Hebrew word might have been rendered, the perfect, is the first object… And to whom shall we look for this undefiled, this perfect character, but to Him who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens? Hebrews 7:26.” (Robert Hawker)

But what of man? "And,” thus, “then follows, ‘Blessed are they, His people, His redeemed, who keep His testimonies, and who seek Him (that is Jesus) with their whole heart.’… (2a)— There is not a blessing out of Him; Ephesians 1:3. For the right apprehension of the word testimonies, we may have recourse to various scriptures. The tables of stone were called the tables of testimony, Exodus 31:18; no doubt they were intended to refer to Christ; and in like manner there was a tabernacle of testimony, Exodus 38:21. And when Jesus tabernacled in substance of our flesh, was not that scripture fulfilled? Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, Revelation 21:3. Moreover, the testimony of Jesus is said to be the spirit of prophecy, Revelation 19:10. And indeed the very word testimony is derived from a word, or root, intimating somewhat future. Therefore when it is said in this Psalm, ‘the people of God keep his testimonies,’ it carries with it an idea of believing in and resting upon God's testimonies of grace here, and glory hereafter, in and from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Robert Hawker) “The gospel is so called, because therein God hath testified how a man shall be pardoned, reconciled to God, and obtain a right to eternal life.” (Thomas Manton)— “’who seek Him with the whole heart.’ (2b) Jesus is at hand to keep us by His mighty power. Let us lean on His supporting arm at every step, and when we fall let us rise and wash our robes in His all-cleansing blood. ” (Henry Law) "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the LORD. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14)

“‘They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways.’ (3) This agrees with the New Testament. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." (1 John 3:9-10) David kept the faith, even while banned from his country of Judah and the temple in Jerusalem. “We may trace David by his failings, they are upon record everywhere in the Torah; yet here a veil is drawn upon them; God laid them not to his charge…. It was a gross fancy of the some, who held that they were not defiled with sin, whatsoever they committed; though base and obscene persons, yet still they were as gold in the dirt. No, no, we are to recover ourselves by repentance, to sue out the favour of God. When David humbled himself, and had repented, then saith Nathan, ‘The Lord hath put away thy sin’ (2Sa 12:13).” (Thomas Manton)

“‘You have commanded us to keep Your pikkudim diligently.’ (4) “‘Pikkudim' is derived from a root signifying a superintending or visiting, it refers to that act of a gracious soul, that is always on the look-out for the visits of Jesus in the influences of His Spirit.” (Robert Hawker) “God has not commanded us to be diligent in making precepts, but in keeping them. Some bind yokes upon their own necks, and make bonds and rules for others: but the wise course is to be satisfied with the rules of Holy Scripture, and to strive to keep them all, in all places, towards all men, and in all respects. If we do not this, we may become eminent in our own religion, but we shall not have kept the command of God.” (Spurgeon)

"‘Whom will He teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon pikkudim, pikkudim upon pikkudim, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.’ For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,’ and, ‘This is the refreshing’; Yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was to them, ‘Pikkudim upon pikkudim, pikkudim upon pikkudim, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,’ that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.” (Isa 28:9-13)

“’O that my ways were directed to keep Your chukkot!’ (5) -- "something prescribed, an enactment, statute" (Strong's) — “’Then I would not be ashamed,’ i.e. I shall be highly honoured both by thee and all thy people; able to look thee and them in the face, free from an evil conscience.” (John Trapp) — “’when I look into all Your Mitzvah.’ (6) “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9) “Turning to the Ten Commandments, the honest man feels no shame as he gazes on the eighth, the pure man is free from reproach as he reads the seventh, he who is reverent and hates blasphemy is not rebuked by the thought that he has violated the third, while the filial spirit rather delights in than shuns the fifth. So on with the remainder. Most men perhaps can look at some of the precepts with comparative freedom from reproof. But who can so look unto them all? Yet this, also, the godly heart aspires to. In this verse we find the Psalmist consciously anticipating the truth of a precept in the New Testament: ‘He that offends in one point is guilty of all.’” (Frederick G. Marchant)

“‘I will praise You” in heaven “with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous mishpatim,’ (7) — those decisions with regard to who is blessed and who is damned, “learnt from Scripture in connection with history [case law] Exodus 21:1; 24:3; Leviticus 18; 19:19.” (Lange's Commentary) If I know the end of my faith, surely “‘I will keep Your chukkot.’ Apply the blood to my heart! “‘Oh, do not forsake me utterly!’ Here the Lord Jesus, “Who in the last day will pronounce some to be blessed and some to be cursed, doth now tell us who they are. What can comfort them to whom the Lord shall say, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed?’ Where away shall they go when the Lord shall command them to depart from Him? And what greather joy can come to a man, than to hear the Judge of all saying unto him, ‘Come to me, ye blessed?’” (William Cowper)

Psalm 119:9-16 Beth ב

9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Word (Heb. Davar; Gr. Logos). 10 With my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your commandments (mitzvoth)! 11 Your Word (Heb. Dabar; Gr. Logos) I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You. 12 Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes (chukkot). 13 With my lips I have declared all the judgments (mishpatim) of Your mouth. 14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies (edot), as much as in all riches. 15 I will meditate on Your precepts (pikkudim), and contemplate Your ways. 16 I will delight myself in Your statutes (chukkot); I will not forget Your Word (Heb. Dabar; Gr. Logos)

“I cannot but beg the Reader, that as he passed through the whole, of this beautiful Psalm, whenever he comes to the expression, Dabar, he will pause over it, and examine whether it is not spoken of the person of Him, who is the eternal Dabar, that in the beginning was with God, and is God. Oh! how blessed to look to Him in all things!” (Robert Hawker)

“Beith is the first letter of the story of creation, starting the entire Torah/Bible –ברא בראשית… [- the Revelation of God to man. It also starts each of the verses of this second strophe. Here is the beginning.] Beith’s literal meaning and form denote a house, and it represents the universal concept of a container or vessel. Thus the created world is meant to house within it the spiritual. The physical world is meant to be a place for the Creator’s glory to manifest...” (WalkingKabbalah) in a house of God— first the temple and now the church of Jesus, even our bodies.

“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Dabar’ (9)— the Son of God, Jn. 1:1, who is called the Word. Because He is the image of the invisible God, as our words are of our thoughts, Col. 1:15. And because God has revealed His will to us by Jesus Christ, Jn 3:34. Heb. 1:1.” (J. B. Worth) David, as a youth, sought this Man. And He appeared to Him. David’s "last words," tells us that “the Rock of Israel spoke to me.” (2 Sam 23:3)… and he listened and obeyed His counsel. In stark contrast: “Rehoboam his grandson followed the counsel of his companions, and lost more than half his kingdom; and those who act like him are in danger of losing their souls.” (Jos. Sutcliffe)

As you have admonished mankind (Psalm 119:2b), “‘with my whole heart I have sought You; oh, let me not wander from Your mitzvoth” (10)— Your moral code. “The Ten Commandments are designed as barriers against crimes.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) And Jesus does not lower the bar, but rather raises it. “You have heard of old, but I say unto you” is His banner cry (See Matthew 5). “You know what John Bradford used to say when he saw a man taken out to be hanged, “There goes John Bradford, but for the grace of God.” (C. H. Spurgeon) “He who became Man for our salvation, passed through this state of youth undefiled, that He might, as it were, reclaim and consecrate it anew to God." (Bishop Horne)

Your Dabar I have hidden in my heart.— “A peerless pearl, should not be laid up in the porter's lodge only- the outward ear; but even in the cabinet of the mind.” (Dean Boys) Jesus said, "Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15:3) “Bodily bread in the cupboard may he eaten of mice, or moulder and waste: but when it is taken down into the body, it is free from such danger. If God enable thee to take thy soul food into thine heart, it is free from all hazards.” (George Swinnock)— to the end “that I might not sin against You’ That by a diligent and affectionate consideration of thy precepts, promises, and threatenings, I might be kept from all sinful practices.” (Joseph Benson) “The most effectual way to prevent is to hide God's word in our hearts, that we may answer every temptation, as our Master did, with, It is written, may oppose God's precepts to the dominion of sin, his promises to its allurements, and his threatenings to its menaces.”( Matthew Henry) “So long as Eve kept by faith the Word of the Lord, she resisted Satan; but from the time she doubted of that, which God made most certain by His Word, at once she was snared.” (William Cowper)

“If God's Word be only in his Bible, and not also in his heart, he may soon and easily be surprised into his besetting sin.” (Adam Clarke) “St. Francis de Sales did not think well of those men who flit from book to book, taking up first one religious exercise and then another; he compared such persons to the drone bee, which makes no honey. ‘Always learning, yet never coming to the knowledge of the truth; always gathering and acquiring, without retaining anything, because what they gather is put into a bottomless sack, a broken cistern.” (Christian Weekly) “The early settlers in America had to keep their guns within reach while about their work on the farm, for the Indians might come upon them unawares. Our foe, the devil, is quite as likely to take us when off guard. We need to have our weapon at all times within reach. It is not probable that our Saviour had the Scriptures in His hands when Satan came to Him in the wilderness, but He had laid up the truth in His heart so that no surprise was possible.” (C. H. Spurgeon) "The act of ‘hiding’ God’s word is not to be limited to the memorization of individual texts or even whole passages but extends to a holistic living in devotion to the Lord (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 30:14; Jeremiah 31:33).” (Fenwick Merril)

“‘Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your chukkot” (12)— ordinances like baptism and communion, and foot washing. Yea, circumcise my heart. (Deut 10:16; Lev 26:41; Jer 4:4; 6:10) He had Nathan, he had priests to instruct him, himself was a prophet; but all their teaching was nothing without God's blessing, and therefore he prays, ‘Teach me.’” (William Nicholson)— “With my lips I have declared all the mishpatim of Your mouth’— the salvation of Israel and the destruction of the world along with those who cling to it. “This he did, not only as a king in making orders, and giving judgment, according to the word of God, nor only as a prophet by his psalms, but in his common discourse.” (Matthew Henry)

In Genesis 3— God said of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil— the mitzvah’s— “in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” The serpent contradicted God, saying to the woman, “You will not surely die.’ (4) etc. 'They heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (8) and hid themselves from His physical presence. Perhaps this is the Dabar of God— for God is Spirit and those who worship Him must do so in Spirit and in Truth. Not withstanding, Yahweh’s God found them and mishpatim was spoken— “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (19) But there was also chukkot— Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Then Yahweh (our Savior) God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’— therefore Yeshua God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (21-24)

“‘I have rejoiced in the way of Your edot, as much as in all riches’ (14)— the tables of stone; the garments of skin, the lessons of the tabernacle, as well as those of Emmanuel, even His very Words— the Message of how a man shall be pardoned, reconciled to God, and obtain a right to eternal life, along with the Spirit of Prophecy. ‘I will meditate on Your pikkudim— those personal revelations that you make to me in the night watch, ‘and contemplate Your ways’ (15) — as revealed. I will delight myself in Your ordinances; I will not forget the Son of God. (16)

Psalm 119: ג GIMEL

17 Deal bountifully with Your servant that I might live. 18 Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your Law (Torah). 19 I am a stranger in the earth; so hide not Your Commandments (Mitzvah) from me. 20 My soul breaks with longing for Your judgments (mishpatim) at all times. 21 You rebuke the proud—the cursed, who stray from Your Commandments (Mitzvah). 22 Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept Your testimonies (eduth). 23 Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes (chukkot). 24 Your testimonies (edot) also are my delight and my counselors.

“Gamel” means “to deal out" — to mankind; “to reward, or to recompense, either good or evil.” (Albert Barnes) Often Israel did not understand. “‘Yet Yahweh hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day’ (Deuteronomy 29:4). They had sensitive eyes and ears, yea, they had a rational heart or mind; but they wanted a spiritual ear to hear, a spiritual heart or mind to apprehend and improve those wonderful works of God; and these they had not.” (Joseph Caryl)— because they asked not. (John 16:24) “O let us never forget; that the wonderful things contained in the divine law can neither be discovered nor relished by the ‘natural man.;” (John Morison) “There are treasures of gold and silver in it that no man has taken the pains to dig for. There are medicines in it for the want of a knowledge of which hundreds have died.” (Henry Ward Beecher)

“‘Deal bountifully with thy servant that I might live.’ Let my wage in the Judgment be according to my standing in Christ and His pardon alone. “If the Lord will only treat us as He treats the least of His servants we may be well content, for all His true servants are sons, princes of the blood, heirs of life eternal.”(C. H. Spurgeon) “In Psalm 119:17, according to the accentuation, אֶחְיֶה belongs to the first member, and indicates the end for which the divine bounties are entreated: ‘that I may live.’” (J. P. Lange) “He wishes so large and rapturous vision of the law, that his soul may be utterly preoccupied with it. So Stephen, at his death, was entranced with the view of his glorified Lord, and forgot his sufferings.” (Daniel Whedon)

“Open my eyes,’ literally, take the veil from off mine eyes. Believers behold the wonders of God's teachings 'with open (literally, unveiled) face' But Israel has still the 'veil upon her heart in the reading of the Old Testament.' 'But when she shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away' (2 Corinthians 3:14-18).” (Jamieson Faussett, Brown) — “‘that I may see wondrous things from Your Torah.’ The saints do not complain of the obscurity of the law, but of their own blindness. The Psalmist doth not say, 'Lord make a plainer law,' but, 'Lord open mine eyes': blind men might as well complain of God, that He doth not make a sun whereby they might see.” (Thomas Manton) ”’What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?’ was the gracious inquiry of the loving Jesus to a poor longing one on earth. ‘Lord! that I may receive my sight,’ was the instant answer. So here, in the same Spirit.’” (Barton Bouchier) “And this at least is certain, that [asking according to His will] we shall always find things that are new to ourselves. However frequently we traverse the field, we shall perceive some fresh golden vein turning up its glance to us, and we shall wonder how our eyes were formerly holden that we did not see it. It was all there waiting for us, and we feel that more is waiting, if we had the vision.” (John Ker) "He wanted to learn the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer, and the glory that is to follow.”(Robert Murray M'Cheyne)

"'I am a stranger in the earth; so hide not Your mitzvahs'- the way of obedience to Your Ten Commandments- 'from me.' I am here a stranger and I know not the way, therefore, Lord, direct me. The similitude is taken from passengers, who coming to an uncouth country where they are ignorant of the way, seek the benefit of a guide. But the dissimilitude is here: in any country people can guide a stranger to the place where he would be; but the dwellers of the earth cannot show the way to heaven; and therefore David seeks no guide among them, but prays the Lord to direct him. “When I cannot have Moses to tell me the meaning, give me that Spirit that thou gavest to Moses.” (Saint Augustine)

"'My soul breaks with longing for Your mishpatim at all times.’ Here God commandments are called judgements, so called “because by them right is judged and discerned from wrong.” (William Cowper) “‘You rebuke the proud—the cursed, who stray from Your Mitzvah.’ Only humble hearts are obedient, for they alone will yield to rule and government. Proud men's looks are high, too high to mark their own feet and keep the Lord's way. Pride lies at the root of all sin: if men were not arrogant they would not be disobedient.” (C. H. Spurgeon) If it be a blessed thing to walk in God's commandments, it must be a cursed thing to transgress them. “Such error brings under a curse those who commit it.” (Pulpit Commentary)

Let the example of Cain, and other proud religious leaders in the Bible, be a warning to all. “He abhors their persons and their offerings: He ‘knows them afar off:’ He ‘resisteth them:’ ‘He scattereth them in the imaginations of their hearts.’ Yet more especially hateful are they in His sight, when cloaking themselves under a spiritual garb,—which say, ‘stand by thyself, come not near to me: for I am holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.’” (Charles Bridges)

“‘Remove’— Hebrew, 'gal;' ‘roll away’— ‘from me reproach and contempt,’ namely such as Israel bare when failing to practice the truths in God’s Commandments.— "‘for I have kept Your eduth.’ God oft rebuked them in His displeasure. i.e. Moses did not circumcise the people, but in Joshua 5:9, "after the people had ceased to be uncircumcised, Yahweh said ... ‘This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.’ Wherefore the name of the place is called ‘Gilgal’ (i.e., rolling…).— The renewal of circumcision practically announced that God then renewed the covenant with Israel.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) You have this day circumcised my heart. I had previously walked in sin, but now You have pardoned me. “Therefore thou wilt maintain mine honour and interest according to thy promise made to such as keep thy testimonies, and I beg with some confidence that thou wilt do it.” (Matthew Poole)

“’Princes [in position in the church] so sit and speak against me,’ — sitting notes continuance. “And when they sat upon their seats of judicature, and when they sat together in companies, entertaining one another with discourses.” (Matthew Poole) “It is a hard temptation when the godly are troubled by any wicked men; but much harder when they are troubled by men of honour and authority [in the church of God]. And therefore, it should be accounted a great benefit of God, when He gives a people good and religious rulers.” (William Cowper) It is not the rebukes of these your enemies but ’Your instructions from the tabernacle also are my delight and my counselors.’ — my learned counsel, by whose advice I do all.” (John Trapp) “He made them his counsellors, or ‘the men of his counsel;’ and closely adhered to their decisions, as princes do to the unanimous opinion of their most approved advisers.” (Thomas Scott)

Psalm 119:25-32- Daleth ד

25 My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to Your Word (Dabar). 26 I have declared my ways, and You answered me; teach me Your statutes (chukkot). 27 Make me understand the way of Your precepts (pikkudim); so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works. 28 My soul melts from heaviness; strengthen me according to Your word. 29 Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me Your law graciously. 30 I have chosen the way of truth; your judgments(mishpatim) I have laid before me. 31 I cling to Your testimonies (eduth); O Lord, do not put me to shame! 32 I will run the course of Your commandments (mitzvah) when You shall enlarge my heart.

“Dallet is the word for door, gate and indicates resistance and the state of selflessness and humility needed to pass through it... Dallet is also the poor man, who receives from benevolence of the Creator, represented by Gimel. It is the realization that as humans, we having nothing of our own, but are entirely dependent on the Creator… Finally, the Dallet represents structure. Its form of a horizontal and vertical line represents a grid, giving structure to the form” (WalkingKabbalah) —steps.

“‘My soul"— “naphshi, my life” (Adam Clarke) — "'clings to the dust.’ It has the sense of adhering firmly to anything, so that it cannot easily be separated from it….’ Dust’… may mean the grave as if he were near to that, and in danger of dying…” (Albert Barnes), perhaps eternally— “'Revive me according to Your Word (made flesh)' .(25) ‘Make me alive.’ Keep me from going down into the dust.” (Adam Clarke) “There is an atmosphere of life, high above this dust which streams to us from every side, and penetrates even the darkest dungeon. There is a spring of life by which the weary soul may be refreshed; and the entrance to this spring stands open, in spite of all the clouds of dust which obscure this valley of shadows here.” (J. J. Van Oosterzee) “Many understand this verse, merely as a complaint on account of deep affliction, and peril of death, and as a prayer for the preservation of life… Yet it is evident that the Psalmist was conscious, that, compared with his better judgment and the perfect standard of duty [which he doubtless knew], his affections were exceedingly apt to cleave to worldly objects, which are but dust; and that he prayed for enlivening grace to render him more spiritually-minded. (Matt 16:21-23; 5:23. 1 Cor 3:13. Col 3:14).” (Thomas Scott)

He came to the Door. “'I have numbered my ways;’ my manner of life, my sins, my temptations, my sorrows, my wants, dangers, fears, cares, and concerns; my designs, undertakings, and pursuits: I have spread them all before thee, by way of sincere confession, humble supplication, or solemn appeal.” (Joseph Benson) — “’And You answered me.’ (26a) (He was admitted. "His confession had been accepted; it was not lost labour; God had drawn near to him in it. We ought never to go from this duty till we have been accepted in it. Pardon follows upon penitent confession, and David felt that he had obtained it. It is God's way to forgive our sinful way when we from our hearts confess the wrong.” (C. H Spurgeon)

“Teach me Your statutes” (26b)— the meaning of the covering of Adam and Eve with skins and the burnt offerings of old, with all of the lessons taught by the Your priests at the door of tabernacle in the wilderness. These continued with the ark. Be my Guide, my instructing priest. “‘Make me understand the way of Your pikkudim;” Your answer to me— “‘so shall I meditate on Your wonderful works,’ (27) even the wonders of the law mentioned before, Psalms 119:18.” (Matthew Poole)— the way of salvation by a crucified Redeemer, and the glory that is to follow.

“‘My soul melts from heaviness;’ like wax before the fire, through godly sorrow for sin; or sinks under the weight of my affliction. ‘Strengthen me according to Your word.’ (28) 'Remove from me the way of lying,' all that was in his nature, “not agreeable to the Word, whether it be counsels, or conclusions of the heart, or external actions; and it is called the way of lying, because nature promises a good to be gotten by sin which man shall not find in it.” (William Cowper) “‘And grant me thy law graciously.’ (29) "David had ever the book of the law; for every king of Israel was to have it always by him, and the Rabbis say, written with his own hand. But, ‘Grant me thy law graciously;’ that is, he desires he might have it not only written by him, but upon him, to have it imprinted upon his heart, that he might have a heart to observe and keep it.” (Thomas Manton)

"'I have chosen the way of truth,' that is baptism— "the self denial of it, as well as the comfort of it; a Saviour from sin as well as a Saviour from hellfire; a Saviour whose Spirit can lead from prayerlessness to godliness, from idleness upon the Sabbath day to a holy keeping of that day, from self-seeking to the seeking of Christ, from slack, inconsistent conduct to a careful observance of all the Lord's will. Where God's people meet, there such will delight to be. O for such to abound among us!” (John Stephen)— “‘Your judgments I have laid before me.’ (30)Thereby to fright my conscience, that I might not so much as equivocate.” (John Trapp)

“‘I cling to Your testimonies;’ of Your dealings with man as found in the Holy Writ. ‘O Lord, do not put me to shame!’ (31) Suffer me not to fall from thee in such sort that I am put to an open shame.” (Pulpit Commentary) as some recorded therein. “‘I will run the course of Your commandments when You shall enlarge my heart.’ (32) When thou shalt have oiled my joints, and nimbled my feet, then shall I run and not be weary, walk and not faint, Isaiah 40:31; our promises of obedience must be conditional, since without Christ we can do nothing.” (John Trapp)

In the Holy Place— the church— there arises enlargement of heart, which is Wisdom, as for Solomon in 1 Kings 4:29. It helps us run "through the wide race-course of thy commandments; not stationary, but straining every nerve to reach the goal of perfection (1 Corinthians 9:24; Galatians 5:7; Philippians 2:16; Philippians 3:12-14)” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown)- realized in the holy of holies. "There arises a clearer Light there to discern spiritual things in a more spiritual manner; to see the vast difference betwixt the vain things the world goes after, and the true solid delight that is in the way of God's commandments; to know the false blush of the pleasures of sin, and what deformity is under that painted mask, and not be allured by it; to have enlarged apprehensions of God, His excellency, and greatness and goodness; how worthy He is to be obeyed and served; this is the great dignity and happiness of the soul." (Robert Leighton)

Psalm 119:33-40 Hei ה׳

33 Teach me, YHWH, the way of Your statutes (chukkot) , and I shall keep it to the end. 34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law (torah); indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 35 Make me walk in the path of Your commandments (mitzvoth), for I delight in it. 36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies (edot), and not to covetousness (betza).

37 Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way. 38 Establish Your word (davar) to Your servant, who is devoted to fearing You. 39 Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your judgments (mishpatim) are good. 40 Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me in Your righteousness (tzedakah).

“Hei” means “behold,” that is, “to show” a Great Reveal as in the ancient name of the God of Israel, which formed a tetragram and points to the Risen One.— Yud-hei-vav-hei”—“Behold the Nail, Behold the Hand!”

“’Teach me, YHWH, the way of your chukkot,’ There is a way marked out by God's own appointment for all His people to walk in.” (W. Wilson) It is the way of obedience to moral code by means of atonement by the blood of Jesus — ‘and I shall keep it to the end’— the original reads, ‘keep it the end,— quite through; the Hebrew is, ‘to the heel.’ The force of the words seems to be, ‘Quite through, from head to foot.’” (Zachary Mudge)

“’Give me understanding and I shall keep Your torah. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.’ (34) I “will be no hypocrite.” (Adam Clarke) “’Make me walk in the path of Your mitzvoth,’—our moral code of the Ten Commandments, ‘for therein do I delight’… (35) Not any new way, but the old and pathed way wherein all the servants of God have walked before him.” (William Cowper) “This is the cry of a child that longs to walk, but is too feeble; of a pilgrim who is exhausted, yet pants to be on the march; of a lame man who pines to be able to run. It is a blessed thing to delight in holiness, and surely he who gave us this delight will work in us the yet higher joy of possessing and practicing it.” (C. H Spurgeon)

“Incline my heart ‘to Your edot’ or testimony of my guilt… ‘and not to covetousness.’ (36) Paul makes this same case for the Seventh Commandment and the sanctity of marriage. “But be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' [Deut 31:6, 8; Pentateuch] So we may boldly say: 'Yahweh is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?'" [Ps 118:6] (Hebrews 13:5-6) In considering my neighbor’s wife [or other possession] as outlined in the Second Tablet], but I should be content with the ‘things’ which I have. For Jesus will never leave ‘e nor forsake me—“so to Jacob, Gen 28:15; to Israel, Deut. 31:6,8; to Joshua, Josh. 1:5; to Solomon, 1 Chr. 28:20. It is a divine adage. What was said to them extends to us. He will neither withdraw His presence (‘never leave’) nor His help (‘nor forsake thee’)(Bengel).” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)

“Turn away my eyes from ‘beholding vanity’ — any thing that is vain, empty, or transitory… Let me remember Achan: he saw, - he coveted, - he took, - he hid his theft, and was slain for his sin.” (Adam Clarke) “The evil contracted through eyes creeps in to the inmost recesses of the heart, and casts in the seeds of perdition.” (Wolfgang Musculus) “He that feareth burning must take heed of playing with fire.” (Joseph Caryl) Thus: “The Israelites were appointed to make themselves fringes with blue ribbons to lock upon, that they might remember all God’s commandments and do them, and not seek after their own heart and their own eyes, after which they used to go a whoring, Numbers 15:39.” (John Trapp)

“Establish Your Davar to Your servant,’— the manga carta, the first promise held forth thus,—‘The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.’” (William Gurnall)— “who is devoted to fearing You.’ (38) “He that chooses God, devotes himself to God as the vessels of the sanctuary were consecrated and set apart from common to holy uses... and will no more be devoted to profane uses.” (Thomas Watson)

Everything that is not devoted to similar use is devoted to destruction with the serpent. "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8)

“Turn away my reproach which I dread, for Your mishpatim are good.’ (39) “I have already by name through adultery and murder brought shame and rebuke upon myself among men; I entreat thee to remove this shame and rebuke.” (Richard Greenham) — lest I “should cause the enemy to blaspheme through any glaring inconsistency.“ (C. H. Spurgeon)

“‘Behold, I long for Your precepts;’— from a word which means ‘to place in trust,’ meaning something entrusted to man [i.e the personal realization of need of atonement], ‘that which is committed to thee;’ appointments of God, which consequently have to do with the conscience, for which man is responsible, as an intelligent being.”(John Jebb)—> “’Quicken me’ in Your righteousness (tzedakah). (40) “The longing after the Commandments is the distinguishing mark of the godly and the pledge of salvation.” (Hengstenberg.) Thus He not only imputes but also imparts—>

“Behold, the days come, saith YHWH that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, YHWH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (YHWH-Tsidkenu).” (Jer 23:5-6)

Hymn: I ONCE WAS A STRANGER Words: Robert M. McCheyne (1837)—>

I once was a stranger to grace and to God, I knew not my danger, and felt not my load; Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree, Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure, to sooth or engage, Isaiah’s wild measure and John’s simple page; But e’en when they pictured the blood sprinkled tree, Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll, I wept when the waters went over His soul; Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree, Jehovah Tsidkenu—’twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high, Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die; No refuge, no safety in self could I see— Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

My terrors all vanished before the sweet name; My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came To drink at the fountain, life giving and free— Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

Jehovah Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast, Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne’er can be lost; In thee I shall conquer by flood and by field, My cable, my anchor, my breast-plate and shield!

Even treading the valley, the shadow of death, This “watchword” shall rally my faltering breath; For while from life’s fever my God sets me free, Jehovah Tsidkenu, my death song shall be.

Psalm 119:41-48 Waw וֹ — Ear— 41 Let Your mercies come also to me, O Yahweh— even Your salvation (yasa) according to Your word (davar). 42 So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word (davar). 43 And take not the word (davar) of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in Your judgement (mishpat). 44 So shall I keep Your law (torah) continually, forever and ever. 45 And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts (pikkudim). 46 I will speak of Your testimonies (edot) also before kings (melachim), and will not be ashamed. 47 And I will delight myself in Your commandments (mitzvot), which I love. 48 My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments (mitzvot), which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes (chukkot).

“‘Let Your mercies come also to me, O Yahweh— "’Let it come,’ that is, let it be performed or come to pass, as it is rendered: ‘Now let thy words come to pass’ (Jdg 13:12).” (Thomas Manton)— “‘even Your salvation;’ not temporal, but spiritual and eternal salvation.” (John Gill) “This is the sum and crown of all mercies—deliverance from all evil, both now and for ever.” (C.H. Spurgeon)— “‘according to Your Word.’ Oh, be sure of this, He never sent His prophets to preach to us a salvation which cannot be ours; He never sent His apostles to report to us concerning a mere dream; He never set the angels wondering at an empty speculation; He never gave His Son to be a ransom which will not redeem; and He never committed His Spirit to witness to that which after all will mock the sinner’s need. No, He is able to save: there is salvation, there is salvation to be had, to be had now, even now. (C. H. Spurgeon)

“‘So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your Davar’ (42)— in Christ the essential Word, the object of trust and confidence; or in the written word, it being divinely inspired and dictated by the Spirit of God, and so to be depended on as true and faithful.” (John Gill)— “For truly with weapons of this kind the Saviour Himself discomfited Satan in the wilderness (Mat 4:1-11); and Paul (Eph 6:10-18) puts on himself, and commends to the Christian soldier, the girdle of Divine truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” (Solomon Gessler) — "When David was driven away by Absalom, Shimei loaded him with reproaches; as if God had rejected him for his crimes, and as if his confidence in God had been presumptuous. (2 Sam 16:5-14.)

—When Christ was nailed to the cross, the chief priests reviled him, saying, ‘He trusted in God : let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him; for he said: I am the Son of God." (Matthew 27:39-44.)

—But the restoration of David to his throne, and the resurrection of Christ from the dead, furnished a sufficient answer to these reproaches... and the complete salvation of true believers will for ever silence and put to shame all those, who have derided and slandered them.” (Thomas Scott)

“‘And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth,’— The word shall be taken out of the mouth of the hardened sinner, when Jesus finally rebukes him, “Get thee on my left; depart from Me for I never knew you.” “Eloquence itself becomes dumb if the conscience be evil. The birds of heaven come and take the word out of thy mouth, even as they took the seed of the word from off the rock lest it should bring forth fruit.” (Ambrose)— “’for I have hoped in Your judgment,’ (43) to be found in You. The promise or threatening of the law is fulfilled twofold. “(1) When the promise is fulfilled: that is judgment in a sense when God accomplishes what He has promised for our salvation and deliverance. Thus God is said to judge His people, when He righteth and sayeth to them according to His word: ‘O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause’ (Lam 3:59). (2) But the more usual notion of judgment is the execution of the threatening on wicked men; which being a benefit to God's faithful servants, and done in their favour.” (Thomas Manton)

“‘So shall I keep Your torah’ hidden in my heart that I might proclaim the Victory for all eternity. “What He says in the Scriptures he actually performs in His government.” (C. H. Spurgeon)— “‘continually, for ever and ever,’ (44) in this life and that to come [for us]; when the law of God will be kept, and His will done perfectly by the saints.” (John Gill) “Perfect obedience will constitute a large proportion of heavenly happiness to all eternity; and the nearer we approach to it on earth, the more we anticipate the felicity of heaven.” (Bagster's Comprehensive Bible)

“‘I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.’ (45) The Bible says that a man led by the Spirit is not under the law, it does not mean that he is free because he may sin without being punished for it; but it means that he is free because being taught by God's Spirit to love what His law commands he is no longer conscious of acting from restraint." (F. W. Robertson) “I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings [rulers in the church]’ (46)— 'doctors, philosophers,' etc. Isa 52:15.— ‘and will not be ashamed.’ Thus the apostles were enabled to speak boldly before kings and governors in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Jos. Sutcliffe) “And I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love.’ (47) Whereas other princes place their delight in the glories and vanities of this world, and the study and practice of religion is generally irksome and loathsome to them, thy law shall be my chief delight and recreation.” (Matthew Poole)

“For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born because of the promise.” (Galatians 4:22-23) “If the Word dwells richly in the heart, the tongue is free and glad.” (Daniel Whedon) “The Ten Commandments are an old-fashioned thing with the world. None trouble themselves about them for they think that no one can keep them.

But with God’s children it is not so. His Commandments are to them not a house of correction, but a garden of delights.” (John Franke)

“Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the Commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” (Revelation 14:12)

“‘My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments (mitzvot), which I love,’— vowing obedience to them: Genesis 14:22.” (William Kay) “To lift up the hand is a gesture importing readiness, and special intention in doing a thing.” (Joseph Caryl) “Aben Ezra explains... that the metaphor, in this place, is taken from the action of those who receive any one whom they are glad or proud to see.” (Daniel Cresswell, 1776-1844.) "The lifting up of the hands" refers to "the longing desire expressed by stretching out the hands after the commandments (Hitzig), often parallel to the lifting up of the heart to the highest good.” (Lange’s Commentary) —

“’and I will meditate on Your ordinances.’ (48) I will present every victim and sacrifice which the law requires.” (Adam Clarke)

What of the meanings of the "waw" that adorns each verse of this passage. It is the story of Jubilee, which unfolds in the torah— of a bondservant who is free to leave, but elects to remain under the service of his master. “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever. (Exodus 21: 2-6) We are sons of the free.

Psalm 119:49-56— Zayin ז

49 Remember the word (davar) to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope. 50 This is my comfort (nechamah) in my affliction, for Your word (davar) has given me life. 51 The proud have me in great derision, yet I do not turn aside from Your law (torah). 52 I remembered Your judgments (mishpatim) of old, O Yahweh, and have comforted myself. 53 Indignation (zilaphah) has taken hold of me because of the wicked (resha’im), who forsake Your law (torah). 54 Your statutes(chukkot) have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. 55 I remember Your name in the night, O Yahweh, and I keep Your law (torah). 56 This has become mine, because I kept Your pikkudim.

“Zayin is a ‘sword’ or ‘sharp weapon’… As Ziyan is the first letter of the word ‘zahor’ (זכור), meaning to remember, and this is one of two basic commandments of the Sabbath, there seems to be a very strong link between the seventh letter in the Hebrew alphabet and the day of rest!” (Hebrew Today) It is “a Vav with a crown on top of it.” (WalkingKabbalah)

“Remember the Your Word to Your servant,’ not my service to you- the message from the beginning, eternal life (1 John 2:25)- even the Word of Promise “concerning establishing his house and kingdom forever.” (Gill)

“This is my comfort’— ‘nechamah', consolation— ‘in my affliction.’ (cp.Job 6:8-11— Even if God cut him off in this life. Job says, “Then I would still have comfort; though in anguish I would exult, He will not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. What strength do I have, that I should hope? And what is my end, that I should prolong my life?”)— “’for Your Word has given me life;’ (50) And the comforts that are fetched from thence are strong ones, because they are His comforts, since they come from His Word. The word of a prince comforts, though he be not there to speak it. Though it be by a letter, or by a messenger, yet he whose word it is, is one that is able to make his word good.” (Richard Sibbes) “Philosophical comforts are of little force, as Plato acknowledgeth, and Cicero bewaileth in his Epistle to Octavius.” (Trapp)

“’The proud have me in great derision.’— The pagan mocked at the seemingly visionary expectation of Israel, that God would raise her up from the dust to an eminent kingdom (Ps 119:42). But [spiritual] Israel did not let herself be turned aside from God's law by the suggestions of carnal sense and reason, however outward appearances might discourage all hope.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) "They ridiculed him... for his strictness [in keeping of the Commandments], and called it needless preciseness...— ‘yet I do not turn aside from Your Torah.’ (51) They have done all they could to make me quit it for shame, but none of these things move me... but, 'if this seem to be vile,' as he said when Michal had him greatly in derision, ‘I will be yet more vile.’” (Henry)

“’I remember Your judgments of old,’ etc. not merely thy sentences upon wicked men, but all the course of thy providential government of the world, including thy deliverances of thy servants. And have comforted myself. Have found comfort, i.e., in calling them to mind, and dwelling upon them.” (Pulpit Commentary) “He remembered that at the beginning Adam, because of transgression of the divine command, was cast out from dwelling in Paradise; and that Cain, condemned by the authority of the divine sentence, paid the price of his parricidal crime; that Enoch, caught up to heaven because of his devotion, escaped the poison of earthly wickedness: that Noah, because of righteousness the victor of the deluge, became the survivor of the human race; that Abraham, because of faith, diffused the seed of his posterity through the whole earth.” (Ambrose) And I remember all of the examples of fleshly Israel, "because nothing can happen to us which hath not happened to God’s people of old; no case of which there is not a precedent in Scripture, where we may read the process of similar trials, their issue, and the final sentence of the Judge, who is still the same, and whose rule of procedure and determination is invariable.” (Bishop Horne)

“Indignation’ [or horror] has taken hold of me because of the wicked, who forsake Your Torah’ (53)—… those who are mistaken, and who bring their false hopes to the grave with them!" (David Brainerd)— that is, he is filled with horror on account of their wickedness. Zilaphah, “which we render horror, is thought to signify the pestilential burning wind called by the Arabs simoom. Here it strongly marks the idea that the psalmist had of the destructive nature of sin; it is pestilential; it is corrupting, mortal.” (Adam Clarke) “The state referred to here is that of one who sees the storm of burning wind and sand approaching; who expects every moment to be overcome and buried; whose soul trembles with consternation…. ‘because of the wicked’ … - Their conduct alarms me. Their danger appalls me. Their condition overwhelms me. I see them rebelling against God. I see them exposed to His wrath...” (Albert Barnes) of destruction.

But vengeance (the sword) is the Lord’s. So, at this same time, I have made Your lesson of atonement (spiritual sword) “my song in the house of my pilgrimage,’ (54) on this earth. House of my pilgrimage— “We may rather, with Basil, refer it to the whole time of David's mortal life …. So Jacob acknowledgeth to Pharaoh, that his life was a pilgrimage; and Abraham and Isaac dwelt in the world as strangers... St. Peter therefore teacheth us as pilgrims to abstain from the lusts of the flesh; and St. Paul, to use this world as if we used it not; for the fashion thereof goeth away.” (William Cowper) “As the exile sings songs of his home, so the child of God, ‘a stranger on earth,’ sings the songs of heaven, his true home.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) “Great is the comfort that cometh in by singing of psalms with grace in our hearts.” (John Trapp)

“‘I remember Your name in the night O Yahweh.’ When others slept I woke to think of thee, thy person, thy actions, thy covenant, thy name, under which last term he comprehends the divine character as far as it is revealed. He was so earnest after the living God that he woke up at dead of night to think upon Him.” (C. H.Spurgeon) “There is never a time in which it is not proper to turn to God and think on his name. In the darkness of midnight, in the darkness of mental depression, in the darkness of outward providence.” (William S. Plumer)— ‘and I keep your Torah’ (55) He found sanctification through meditation; by the thoughts of the night he ruled the actions of the day.” (C. H. Spurgeon) ‘This was my consolation, that I kept thy precepts;’ which is nearly the reading of the Syriac, and renders the sense more complete.”(Bagster's Comprehensive Bible) I was enable to apply he blood to my heart. “How many stony-ground hearers fall away in time of temptation! Alas, this is the way to lose, and not to win the crown of life.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)

Psalm 119:57-64 –Heth ם

57 You are my portion, O Yahweh; I have said that I would keep Your words. 58 I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your word. 59 I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies (edot). 60 I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments (mitzvot). 61 The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I have not forgotten Your law (torah). 62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgments (mishpatim). 63 I am a companion of all who fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts (pikkudim). 64 The earth, O Yahweh, is full of Your mercy (chesed); teach me Your statutes (chukkot).

Heith— the eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet— is the letter of life, representing eternal life, after the rest. The ancient form of the letter looks like a ladder. “So have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass and soaring upward, singing as he rises, and hoping to get to heaven and climb above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back by the loud sighings of an eastern wind, his motion became inconstant and irregular, till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel, as he was passing through the air about his ministries of mercy.” (Jeremy Taylor)

“‘You are my portion, O Yahweh,’ Whereas other men place their portion and happiness in worldly things, I have chosen thee for my portion and chief treasure: and thou art an all-sufficient and excellent portion for me.” (Joseph Benson) “This is real estate language and refers to the apportioning of the land of Canaan to the tribes of Israel (78:55; Josh. 13-21). The priests and Levites were not given an inheritance in the land because the Lord was their inheritance and their portion (Num. 18:20-24; Deut. 10:8-9; 12:12). Jeremiah, the priest called to be a prophet, called the Lord 'the portion of Jacob’… (Jer. 10:16; 51:19; Lam. 3:24), and David used the same image in Psalm 16:5-6.” (Warren Wiersbe)— “‘I have said that I would keep thy words.’ This he brings in by way of proving that which he said in the former words. Many will say with David, that God is their portion; but here is the point: how do they prove it? If God were their portion, they would love him; if they loved him they would love his word; if they loved his word they would live by it.” (William Cowper)

David’s greatest glory was not “in that flush of youthful victory, when Goliath lay prostrate at his feet, nor in that hour of even greater triumph, when the damsels of Israel sang his praise in the dance, saying, ‘Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’; it would not be on that royal day, when his undisputed claim to the throne of Israel was acknowledged on every side and by every tribe; but it would be in that moment when, with a loving and trustful heart, he looked up to God and said, ‘Thou art my portion.’” (Barton Bouchier) For then did he resolved "to keep His commandments, lay up His promises, observe His ordinances, profess and retain a belief in His doctrines.” (John Gill)

“I entreated Your favor with my whole heart.’ Prayer is chiefly a heart work. God heareth the heart without the mouth, but never heareth the mouth acceptably without the heart.” (Walter Marshall)— “‘Be merciful to me according to Your word. I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies (edot).’ He himself did this in fact; and he does not hesitate to say that it was he who thus turned. His own agency was employed. He does not say that he ‘waited’ for God to turn him; or that he found he could not turn of himself, but that he turned; he paused; he reflected; he changed his course of life. This is true in conversion always…. Man himself is always active in conversion. That is, he does something; he changes; he repents; he believes; he turns to God; it is not God that changes, that repents, that believes, that turns; it is the man himself. It is, indeed, by the grace and help of God.” (Albert Barnes)

“’I made haste and did not delay,’— This double expression increaseth the sense according to the manner of the Hebrews; as, ‘I shall not die, but live’’ (Psalm 118:17).” (Thomas Manton)— “’to keep Your commandments (mitzvot).’ He turned from by-paths,” (Matthew Henry) and turned to God's Commandments, determined to keep them “without any long deliberation with flesh and blood, although the snares of wicked men surround him.” (Keil & Delitzsch) We must not stand on traditions of men here. “To find his duty to God and man, he went directly to God’s Commandments. “When we are called to duty we must lose no time, but set about it today, while it is called today.” (Matthew Henry) “It is dangerous for Lot to linger in Sodom, lest fire and brimstone come down from heaven upon him. The manslayer must fly with all haste to the city of refuge, lest the avenger of blood pursue him.” (Walter Marshall)

“The cords of the wicked have bound me,” (61) Men tried to dissuade him from the old path; but when he persisted: “They did him all the mischief they could; they robbed him; having endeavoured to take away his good name (Psalm 119:51), they set upon his goods, and spoiled him of them, either by plunder in time of war or by fines and confiscations under colour of law. Saul (it is likely) seized his effects, Absalom his palace, and the Amalekites rifled Ziklag. Worldly wealth is what we may be robbed of.” (Matthew Henry)— “‘but I have not forgotten Your Torah.’ “If Satan should come to thee with an other fruit, as once he did to Eve, tell him that ‘the Lord is your portion.’”(Thomas Brooks) — “‘At midnight'- late in endtime sequence of events- 'I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgments.’ (62) Hengstenberg supposes a reference to the time when the Lord went forth to slay the Egyptian first-born (Exodus 11:4; 12:29; cp. Job 34:20).” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown)

“‘I am a companion of all who fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts (pikkudim).’ These are my brethren, not the Israelites who go to the temple but seek to steal the kingdom from me. “‘The earth, O Yahweh, is full of Your mercy (chesed).' The metaphor of the harvest is the theme of Scriptures.— "Teach me Your statutes (chukkot' taken from your tabernacle.— "The [meaning of the] shewbread, the sweet incense, the smoke of the sacrifices, Aaron's breastplate, the preaching of the cross, the keys of the kingdom of heaven: do not all these proclaim mercy?…. Do not the visions, covenants, promises, messages, mysteries, legal purifications, evangelical pacification, confirm this?... What would become of the children if there were not these breasts of consolation? How should the bride, the Lamb's wife, be trimmed, if her bridegroom did not deck her with these habiliments? How should Eden appear like the Garden of God, if it were not watered by these rivers? It is mercy that takes us out of the womb, feeds us in the days of our pilgrimage, furnishes us with spiritual provisions, closes our eyes in peace, and translates us to a secure resting place. It is the first petitioner's suit, and the first believer's article, the contemplation of Enoch, the confidence of Abraham, the burden of the Prophetic Songs, the glory of all the apostles, the plea of the penitent, the ecstasies of the reconciled, the believer's hosannah, the angel's hallelujah Ordinances, oracles, altars, pulpits, the gates of the grave, and the gates of heaven, do all depend upon mercy. It is the load star of the wandering, the ransom of the captive, the antidote of the tempted, the prophet of the living, and the effectual comfort of the dying: — there would not be one regenerate saint upon earth, nor one glorified saint in heaven, if it were not for mercy.” (G. S. Bowes)

Psalm 119:65-72 –Teth ט

65 You have dealt well with Your servant, O Yahweh, according to Your word (davar). 66 Teach me good judgment (ṭa-‘am) and knowledge, for I believe Your commandments (mitzvot). 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word (davar). 68 You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes (chukkot). 69 The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts(pikkudim) with my whole heart. 70 Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in Your law (torah). 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes (chukkot). 72 The law (torah) of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.

The pictograph is a container, perhaps the fragile, clay cup—ט— of affliction. “‘What do you want? He inquired. She answered, ‘Declare that in Your kingdom one of these two sons of mine may sit at Your right hand, and the other at Your left.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking,’ Jesus replied. ‘Are you able to drink the cup I am going to drink?’ ‘We are able,’ the brothers answered. ‘You will indeed drink My cup,’ Jesus said. ‘But to sit at My right or left is not Mine to grant. These seats belong to those for whom My Father has prepared them.’” (Matthew 20:21-23)

“‘You have dealt well with Your servant, O Yahweh.’ Notwithstanding all that he has suffered…, the psalmist feels that God's dealings with him have, on the whole, been good and gracious. ‘According unto thy Word.’ As thou hast promised in thy Word to deal with thy servants (comp. Psalms 119:41, Psalms 119:58, Psalms 119:170).” (Pulpit Commentary)

He drank the Lord’s cup of affliction—“The expression, ‘according to thy word, ‘is so often repeated in this psalm, that we are apt to overlook it, or to give it only the general meaning of ‘because of thy promise.’ But in reality it implies much more. Had God dealt ‘well’ with David according to man's idea? If so, what mean such expressions as these— ‘O forsake me not utterly,’ (Psalms 119:8) — ‘I am a stranger in the earth,’ (Psalms 119:19) — ‘My soul cleaveth unto the dust,’ (Psalms 119:25) — ‘My soul melteth for heaviness, ‘ (Psalms 119:28) — ‘Turn away my reproach which I fear,’ (Psalms 119:39) — ‘The proud have had me greatly in derision,’ (Psalms 119:51) — ‘Horror hath taken hold upon me’ (Psalms 119:53)?

In view of such passages as these, can it be said that God ‘dealt well’ with David, according to man's idea? David's experience was one of very great and very varied trial. There is not a phase of our feelings in sorrow which does not find ample expression in his psalms. And yet he says, ‘Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, according to thy word.’ (65) How, then, are we to interpret the expression, so often repeated here, in accordance with the facts of David's spiritual life? God dealt well with him ‘according to his word,‘ in the sense of dealing with him according to what his word explained was the true good— not delivering him from all trial, but sending him such trial as he specially required.” (Mary B.M. Duncan)

“‘Teach me good judgment’— not mishpatim, but טַ֣עַם, ṭa-‘am, properly taste— ‘and knowledge;’ i.e. give me sound judgment and wisdom, to discern right from wrong. ‘For I have believed thy commandments [to be holy, righteous, and good, Romans 7:12]’ I have looked to them, and trusted in them as my guides in the way of righteousness.” (Pulpit Commentary)— as well as “the truth and certainty of those promises and threatenings which thou hast annexed to them.” (Matthew Poole)— this “being the rule of happiness, as well as of duty.” (Thomas Scott)

“Sanctified afflictions humble us for sin and show us the vanity of the world; they soften the heart, and open the ear to discipline. The prodigal's distress brought him to himself first and then to his father.” (Henry) And so David in his affliction, David sought the true meaning of the commandments with the object of obedience. “How many have failed here, whose zeal has been above their knowledge.” (Sutcliffe) “‘Without this taste, or discretion, we mistake falsehood for truth in our studies, and wrong for right in our practice; superstition and enthusiasm may pass with us for religion, or else licentiousness may intrude itself upon us under the name and notion of liberty : in a word, our learning and knowledge prove useless, if not prejudicial to us. A sound mind, therefore, should, above all things, be desired of God...” (Bp. Horne)

“‘Before I was afflicted, I went astray’— wandered; erred; wronged; transgressed; sinned (Numbers 15:28; Job 12:16)— “It here means that… he lived in the neglect of his soul, the neglect of duty, and the neglect of God. Prosperity had not led him to fulfill duty.” (Albert Barnes) — that is, to seek understanding and obedience of God’s commandments.

“‘But now have I kept thy word’— There are multitudes whom God has afflicted with natural blindness that they might gain spiritual sight; and those who under bodily infirmities and diseases of divers sorts have pined and wasted away this earthly life, gladly laying hold on glory, honour, and immortality instead.” (William Garrett Lewis)

“‘You are good, and do good; teach me Your chukkot,’ (68)- atonement. We should bless the Lord at all times, and keep up good thoughts of God, on every occasion, especially in the time of affliction. Hence we are commanded to glorify God in the fires (Isaiah 24:15); and this the three children did in the hottest furnace.” (John Willison) "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if He does not, we want you to know, your majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.'” (Daniel 3:16-18)

“‘The proud have forged a lie against me,’’— lierally ‘have plastered falsehood over me’— as a blacksmith beats out a weapon of iron.” (C. H. Spurgeon) "The proud and ungodly will invent plausible lies, and propagate calumnies, artfully devised against the humble servants of God: ‘But I will keep thy precepts…’ etc. (69)— ‘Patient continuance in well doing’ is the most convincing refutation of them.” (Thomas Scott) “Let the word of the Lord come, let it come; and if we had six hundred necks, we would submit them all to His dictates.” (Augustine)

“’Their heart [that of the proud man] is as fat as grease.’ “They prosper exceedingly, and are even glutted with the wealth and comforts of this life.” (Joseph Benson) Their hearts were uncircumcised. "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed." (Isaiah 6:10) — “‘but I delight in Your torah.’ (70) My heart is a lean heart, a hungry heart, my soul loveth and rejoiceth in thy word.” (William Fenner) “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your chukkot. The torah of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver.” (71-72)

Morning Repost- Psalm 119:73-80 –Yod י

73 Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments (mitzvoth). 74 Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in Your word (davar). 75 I know, O Yahweh, that Your judgments (mishpatim) are right (tzedek), and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. 76 Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Your word to Your servant. 77 Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your law (torah) is my delight. 78 Let the proud be ashamed, for they treated me wrongfully with falsehood; but I will meditate on Your precepts (pikkudim). 79 Let those who fear You turn to me, those who know Your testimonies (edot). 80 Let my heart be blameless regarding Your statutes (chukkot), that I may not be ashamed.

The pictograph of you is י, resembling a cama suspended in the air- the "arm" or "hand" of God. YHWH is often spoken of in the Bible as being a source of strength and deliverance. It was His arm that conquered Pharoah when the Hebrews left the bondage of Egypt. —> “You scattered Your enemies with your mighty arm.” (Psalm 89:10)

“’Your hands’— or arm, דֶ֣יךָ , yāḏeḵā , that is, Jesus— ‘made me and fashioned me.’ (73a) “For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Col 1:16) “Israel saith this, in conformity with what Moses said to her, Deuteronomy 32:6 — ‘Do you thus deal with Yahweh, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you?’”(Jamieson, Faussett, Brown)— Cp. “Thus says Yahweh who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.” (Isaiah 44:2) “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” (Deuteronomy 32:15)

Let me not be like fattened Jeshurun who seeks my life.— “‘Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.’ (73b) “That he might learn them so as to know the sense and meaning of them, their purity and spirituality; and so as to do them from a principle of love, in faith, and to the glory of God: for it is not a bare learning of them by heart or committing them to memory, nor a mere theory of them, but the practice of them in faith and love, which is here meant.” (John Gill)

“Thou hast given me a capacity for moral knowledge; but that knowledge I have not. I am in the dark. Kindle within me that light that will enable me to go the way Thou wouldst have me go.” (Biblical Illustrator)

“All our studying, and hearing, and reading, and conferring will never be able to do it [understand]; it is only in the power of Him who made us to do it— He who made our consciences.” (Willam Fenner) “‘Oh, look upon the wounds of thine hands, and forget not the work of thine hands’: so Queen Elizabeth prayed.” (John Trapp) “Thou hast made me once, make me a second time, and renew thy decayed image in me.” (Matthew Poole)

"'Those who fear You will be glad when they see me,'- one whose faith and patience have carried him through troubles, and rendered him victorious over temptations.” (Bishop Horne)— “‘because I have hoped in Your Word'; in Christ the essential Word, the hope of Israel; in the written Word, which gives encouragement to hope; in the Word of promise, on which he was caused to hope; and in which hope he was confirmed, and not disappointed, and so it made him not ashamed: and others rejoiced at it.” (John Gill) “Every such instance [of victory] affords fresh encouragement to all those, who, in the course of their warfare, are to undergo like troubles, and to encounter like temptations.” (Bishop Horne)

“‘I know that Your judgments are right,’ etc (75)— literally, righteousness— ‘and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.’ (75) “Instead of pleasant honey, He sometimes prescribes wholesome wormwood for us." (Isaac Barrow) "He afflicts them [thorn in side] not in consuming anger, but for their salvation (1 Cor 11:32; 1 Pet 4:19).”(Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) “A very noticeable fact in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is His recognition of the trials of the human lot. One of His earliest utterances was a blessing on the mourners and a promise of comfort. He was Himself a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Thus He becomes to man the highest revelation of the religion which God requires. And when the most trying crisis of His life was upon Him--when the cross was in view, and the agony of His soul was at its height; yet did He, out, of His living trust in God, nevertheless say, ‘Not My will, O Father, but Thine be done.’ This is Christ’s testimony.” (John Cordner)

“‘Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort,’ etc. (76) He does not ask to have it removed. He does not ‘beseech the Lord, that it might depart from him’ 2 Corinthians 12:8.” (Charles Bridges)—

No! David’s prayers is this, “Let me derive my comfort and happiness from a diffusion of thy love and mercy, kdmh chasdecha, thy exuberant goodness through my soul.” (Adam Clarke) Next, literally— ‘Thy tender mercies shall come unto me, and I shall live; for thy law is my delight.’ (77) "He goes upon the foundation of the divine goodness, manifested through the anointed One.” (John Stephen) “First, he sought mercy to forgive his sins: then he sought mercy to comfort him in his troubles; now he seeks mercy to live and sin no more.” (Bishop Cowper)

“‘Let the proud be ashamed.’ The same persons he before speaks of as accursed, who had him in derision, and forged a lie against him. Here he prays that they might be ashamed of their scoffs and jeers, of their lies and calumnies, the evils and injuries they had done him; that they might be brought to a sense of them, and repentance for them…—… ‘for they perverted me with falsehood’; that is, they endeavoured to pervert him with lies and falsehood, and lead him out of the right way" (John Gill) — to dissuade him from the commandments. —“but I will meditate on — 'asiach,' may be rendered "I will speak of," as well as, "I will meditate upon;”— "'Your precepts’, implying, that, when he had obtained [the victory of the commandments], he would proclaim the goodness of God, which he had experienced. To speak of God's precepts, is equivalent to declaring out of the law how faithfully He guards his saints.” (John Calvin)

“None of these things moved him; he still went on in the ways of God, in his worship and service, as Daniel did, when in like circumstances.” Gill)

“’Let those who fear You turn to me, those who know Your testimonies.’ (79) “Of a truth, Lord, I am a companion of all that do fear thee; but it is not in my power to bend their hearts unto me.” (William Bridges) The arm of God sent those “in debt, in distress, and discontented.” (1 Sam 22:2a) “It was a deep sense of need which drove them to him, and a hope that he could relieve them. So it is spiritually. None but those who truly feel that they are paupers before God, with no good thing to their credit, absolutely destitute of any merits of their own, will appreciate the glad tidings that Christ Jesus came into this world to pay the debt of such. Only those who are smitten in their conscience, broken in heart, and sick of sin, will really respond to that blessed word of His, ‘Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.’…. Those who sought David in the Cave of Adullam turned their backs upon both the court of Saul and the [practised] religion of Judaism.... And David ‘became a captain over them’ (1 Sam 22:2b). Important and striking line in the picture is this. Christ is to be received as ‘Lord’ (Col. 2:6) if He is to be known as Saviour. Love to Christ is to be evidenced by ‘keeping His commandments’ (John 14:15)... This is what Christ requires from all who identify themselves with Him. ‘Take My yoke upon you’ is His demand (Matthew 11:29). Nor need we shrink from it, for He declares ‘My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’” (A. W. Pink)... for He does the work in us.

“If you would be faithful to Christ, be sincere in your profession of Him…: ‘Let my heart be sound in thy statutes;’ (80)

Religion which is begun in hypocrisy will certainly end in apostasy, and this always carries with it reproach and ignominy.” (William Spurstowe)

“A sound heart throbs is unison with the moral laws of the universe. Those laws are the laws of benevolence and truth.” (Homilist)— “’that I be not ashamed.’ to wit, for my sins, which are the only just causes of shame.” (Matthew Poole)— “as all dissemblers once shall be.” (Trapp)

Psalm 119:81-88 Khaf כ

81 My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in Your word (davar). 82 My eyes fail from searching Your word (davar) , saying, “When will You comfort me?” 82 My eyes fail from searching Your word (davar) , saying, “When will You comfort me?” 83 For I have become like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget Your statutes (chukkot). 84 How many are the days of Your servant? when will You execute judgment (mishpat) on those who persecute me? 85 The proud have dug pits for me, which is not according to Your law (torah). 86 All Your commandments (mitzvot) are faithful; they persecute me wrongfully; help me! 87 They almost made an end of me on earth, but I did not forsake Your precepts (pikkudim). 88 Revive me according to Your lovingkindness, so that I may keep the testimony (edut)of Your mouth.

Khaf is like a cupped, outstretched palm, ready to receive. The hand may be man's, as the receiver of grace from the arm (yod) of God “and the whole scope of the section, as a prayer for speedy help, is that man holds out his hand as a beggar, supplicating the mercy of God.” (Neale and Littledale) We are but dust sustained by your breathe. (Genesis 2:17)

“‘My soul faints— “pines away” or “withers” by some— 'for Your salvation,’ saying, as those good souls, Jeremiah 8:20, ‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.’” (John Trapp) “The holy man longs for the coming of the Saviour in the flesh." (Cornelius Jansen) “Pine” means “to lose vigor, health, or flesh,” and “wither” means “to lose vitality, force, or freshness” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) “But I hope in Your [written ]Word,’ (81) being renewed daily by it and, therefore, by the Spirit of Messiah who reveals and revives the soul by His Word. His coming again in the flesh “is for ever settled in heaven, and has the oath of God annexed to it, for the confirmation of it.” (John Gill)

“’My eyes fail from searching Your Word, saying, ‘When will You comfort me?’ David knew where he moored his ship. Hope without a promise is like an anchor without ground to hold by.” (William Gurnall)

I faint or drift, but I hope. “As a man binds a tender sapling to a stake, that the wind may not wrench it; or throws out an anchor into the boiling sea, that the ship may be held by it; so must we bind our wavering hearts to the support of the Word of God, and stay the storm-tossed ship of our souls with the anchor of hope, that they may not sink.” (The Biblical Illustrator) “He speaks in the name of the Old-Testament church the souls of the faithful even fainted to see that salvation of which the prophets testified. (1 Peter 1:10) their eyes failed for it. Abraham saw it at a distance, and so did others, but at such a distance that it put their eyes to the stretch and they could not stedfastly see it.” (Matthew Henry)

“‘For I have become like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget Your statutes’ lessons of atonement. Because of so great of a salvation: “Our trials are smoke [blind obedience], but not fire; they are very uncomfortable, but they do not consume us. Another reason why, when David was in the smoke, he did not forget God’s statutes was this, that Jesus Christ was in the smoke with him, and the statutes were in the smoke with him too. God’s statutes have been in the fire, as well as God’s people. Both the promise and the precept are in the furnace; and if I hang up in the smoke, like a bottle, I see hanging up by my side God’s commands, covered with soot and smoke, subject to the same perils. Suppose I am persecuted: it is a comfort to know that men do not persecute me, but my Master’s truth. Another reason why David did not forget the statutes was, they were in the soul, where the smoke does not enter. Smoke does not enter the interior of the bottle; it only affects the exterior. So it is with God’s children: the smoke does not enter into their hearts; Christ is there, and grace is there, and Christ and grace are both unaffected by the smoke. Come up, clouds of smoke! curl upward till ye envelop me! Still will I hang on the Nail, Christ Jesus--that sure Nail, which never can be moved from its place--and I will feel, that 'while the outward man decayeth, the inward man is renewed day by day'; and the statutes being there, I do not forget them. (C. H. Spurgeon)

“‘How many are the days of Your servant?’— but few. ‘When will You execute judgment on those who persecute me?’ (84) — Soon. Even so come Lord Jesus. “He prays not for power to avenge himself..., but that God would take to Himself the vengeance that belonged to Him, and would repay (Romans 12:19), as the God that sits in the throne judging right. There is a day coming, and a great and terrible day it will be, when God will execute judgment on all the proud persecutors of His people, tribulation to those that troubled them; Enoch foretold it (Judges 1:14), whose prophecy perhaps David here had an eye to; and that day we are to look for and pray for the hastening of.” (Matthew Henry)

“‘The proud have dug pits for me, which is not according to Your torah.’ No, contrary to it; which forbids the digging of a pit, and leaving it uncovered, so that a neighbour's beast might fall into it, Exodus 21:33; and if those might not be dug to the injury of beasts, then much less to the injury of men, to the hurt of the servants of the Lord, or to the shedding of innocent blood, which the law forbids.” (John Gill) The religious proud have no regard for the Bible in their doctrine and conduct. “They have sought my destruction in the meanest way possible - by covert arts, by underhanded means...” etc. (Albert Barnes)

“‘All Your commandments are faithfulness' Heb. that is, they are true, sure, equal, infallible. They persecute me wrongfully’ for asserting thy truths, and adhering thereunto. ‘Help thou me’— The more eagerly men molest us the more earnestly should we implore the Divine help.” (John Trapp) He is persecuted for faithfulness. “At the beginning of our religious life we rest on the assurances of others. Our parents, teachers, ministers, all insist on the truth of Scripture and the certainty of the facts which it reveals; but as life goes on we change our foundations and advance to the personal and experimental conviction which has been wrought in us by years of testing the Word of God for ourselves.” (F.B. Meyer)

“‘They had almost consumed me upon earth,’ their plans to destroy him had almost succeeded; ‘but I forsook not Thy precepts,’ he would not give up his trust in the Word of God.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “It is possible that those who shall shortly be consummate in heaven may be, for the present, almost consumed on earth and it is of the Lord's mercies (and, considering the malice of their enemies, it is a miracle of mercy) that they are not quite consumed. But the bush in which God is, though it burns, shall not be burnt up.” (Matthew Henry) Yet the wicked will be burned up.

“‘Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,’ both for enduring persecutions , as well as Your endtime wrath; “’so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth,’ for every new evidence of God's power in the life of the believers tends to strengthen their faith in the testimony of God for Himself, for the truth, against sin.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “It is God's ‘quickening’—i.e. His life-giving grace—which alone enables His servants to observe and keep His commandments.” (The Pulpit Commentaries)

Psalm 119: 89-96- Lamed ל

89 Forever, O Yahweh, Your word (davar) is settled in heaven. 90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. 91 They continue this day according to Your ordinances (mishpatim), for all are Your servants. 92 Unless Your law (torah) had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction. 93 I will never forget Your precepts (pikkudim), for by them You have given me life. 94 I am Yours, save me; for I have sought Your precepts (pikkudim).95 The wicked wait for me to destroy me, but I will consider Your testimonies (edot). 96 I have seen the consummation of all perfection, but Your commandment (mitzvah) is exceedingly broad.

The number twelve is the foundation of the apostles and the prophets— the pillars of the temple. The pictograph of the twelfth letter is a shepherd’s rod with a goad used to prod the sheep. “The shepherd staff was used to direct sheep by pushing or pulling them. It was also used as a weapon against predators to defend and protect the sheep.” (OT Hebrew Lexical Dictionary) And so lamed, “the 12th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is the symbol of learning. It is translated literally as the word for learning and also staff or goad. It is located at the center of the aleph-beith and represents the heart Lev לב; in kabbalah learning is mostly done with the heart and soul, not just the mind.” (Walking Kabbalah)

The shepherd of a flock today "must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it." (Titus 1:9) “’Forever, O Yahweh, Your Word is settled.’— properly set, placed and then to cause to stand— “as a column, Genesis 35:20; an altar, Genesis 33:20; a monument, 1 Samuel 15:12.’ — ‘in heaven. (89) The meaning here is, that the word - the law - the promise - of God was made firm, established, stable, in heaven; and would be so forever and ever. What God had ordained as law would always remain law; what he had affirmed would always remain true; what he had promised would be sure forever.” (Albert Barnes) “It is eternal and perpetual, neither can it be vacated or abolished by the injury of time or endeavours of tyrants.” (John Trapp)

“In the Book of Isaiah appears a magnificent claim: ‘The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the Word of our God shall stand forever’ (Isaiah 40:8). This contrast is expanded by the apostle Peter: ‘Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever’ (1 Peter 1:23)… The Lord Jesus Christ Himself made the following tremendous claim: ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Words shall not pass away’ (Matthew 24:35). ‘Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled’ (Matthew 5:18).” (Henry M. Morris, PH.D)

“‘Your faithfulness endures to all generations.’ Margin, ‘to generation and generation.’ From one generation to another. The generations of people change and pass away, but thy promises do not change. They are as applicable to one generation as to another; they meet every generation alike. The people of no one age can lay any exclusive claim to them, or feel that they were made only for them. They are as universal - as much adapted to the new generations that come upon the earth - as the light of the sun, ever-enduring, is; or as the fountains and streams, which flow from age to age.— ’You established the earth, and it abides.’ (90) The earth thus established or made firm, is an illustration of thy faithfulness, and of the stability and permanence of thy promises. It is the same from generation to generation, with its rivers, streams, and fountains; with its fruits and flowers; with its balmy air and its sweet prospects; with its riches of gold and silver; with its pearls and diamonds; with its treasures of land and ocean. So is the word of God - so are the gracious promises which he has addressed to people - the same in every age.” ” (Albert Barnes)— “’They (Your faithfulness and the earth) continue this day according to Your ordinances, for all are Your servants.’ (91) “The heavens and earth, and all the hosts of them, still keep their station or perform their courses, according to the original appointment of the Creator: and shall man, who alone is endued with reason and formed for immortality, be single in rebellion against him? See Genesis 8:20-22; Genesis 9:9-17. Deuteronomy 4:19. Isaiah 48: 12-15.” (Thomas Scott)

“‘Unless Your law (torah) had been my delight- unless it had been settled in my heart (as well as it is in heaven) for my singular comfort, I had been crushed. ‘I should then (or long since) have perished.’ (92) The Landgrave of Hesse told me at Dresden, saith Melancthon, that it had been impossible for him to have borne up under the manifold miseries of so long an imprisonment, nisi habuisset consolationem ex verbo divino in suo corde, but for the comforts of the Scriptures in his heart (Joh. Manl. loc. com. 139).” (John Trapp) “The famous Scotch clergyman, Thomas Erskine, said that no demolition of outward authority, even if such demolition were possible, could deprive him of the conviction of the divine origin and authority of the Bible, because it so exactly coincided with the experiences of his life, and had been verified in so many remarkable instances. We have experienced God’s faithfulness to His promises too often to be afraid of any attack upon the truth of Scripture. It is settled in heaven, Psalms 119:89.” (F.B. Meyer)— and my heart.

“‘I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life. (93) I am Yours’— by creation and redemption, and manifold obligations, as also by my own choice and designation— ‘save me;’ is the longing to be delivered from the bondage of corruption and the body of death, the panting to be transformed, renewed and sanctified. (C. F. Childe, M. A.)— ‘for I have sought Your precepts.’ (94) I have devoted myself to thy service, and committed myself to thy care. ‘The wicked wait for me to destroy me, but I will consider Your testimonies,’ as my best comforters, and counsellors, and defenders against all the assaults and designs of mine enemies.” (Matthew Poole) “Literally, ‘Of all consummations I have seen the end:’ (96a) as if one should say, Every thing of human origin has its limits and end, howsoever extensive, noble, and excellent. All arts and sciences, languages, inventions, have their respective principles, have their limits and ends; as they came from man and relate to man, they shall end with man.” (Adam Clarke)— but Your moral code is exceedingly broad -- “both for extent and for continuance; it is useful to all persons in all times and conditions, and for all purposes, to inform, direct, quicken, comfort, sanctify, and save men; it is of everlasting truth and efficacy; it will never deceive nor forsake those who trust to it, as all worldly things will, but will make men happy both here and for ever.” (Matthew Poole)

“David in his time had seen Goliath the strongest overcome, Asahel the swiftest overtaken, Ahithophel the wisest befooled, and Absalom the fairest deformed." (Matthew Henry) “He had seen the vanity of all created good; the vexation of that estate which men account the summit of earthly bliss; the imperfection of the most accomplished human characters; the wretched close of the most prosperous lives; and the miserable disappointment of those, who trusted in men, or idolized earthly possessions and enjoyments.” (Thomas Scott)

“Let evil-doers lie in wait for him ( קוּוּ in a hostile sense, as in Psalms 56:7, קוּה , cf. חכּה , going back to קוה , Arab. qawiya , with the broad primary signification, to be tight, firm, strong) to destroy him, he meditates on God's testimonies. He knows from experience that all (earthly) perfection ( תּכלה ) has an end (inasmuch as, having reached its height, it changes into its opposite); God's commandment (singular as in Deuteronomy 11:22), on the contrary, is exceeding broad (cf. Job 11:9), unlimited in its duration and verification.” (Keil & Delitzsch)

Morning Repost- Psalm 119:97-104 Mem- מ

97 Oh, how I love Your law (torah)! It is my meditation all the day. 98 You, through Your commandments (mitzvoth), make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me. 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for Your testimonies (edot) are my meditation. 100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep Your precepts (pikkudim). 101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word (davar). 102 I have not departed from Your judgments (mishpatim), for You Yourself have taught me. 103 How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 Through Your precepts (pikkudim) I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.

Mem— מ —conceptually represents water, the ocean, or a wave. "Representing both waters and manifestation, it is the ability to dive deep into the wisdom. It is said that in every person is the thirst for the words of the Creator, which are the waters of life. The open mem refers to the revealed aspects of providence, while the closed mem refers to the concealed part of the celestial rule that nonetheless guides us and all of existence…. Mem [also] corresponds to the number 40 and represents the time necessary for the ripening process that leads to fruition. (40 days for the development of the embryo, 40 years in the desert before reaching the holy land, 40 years development before Moses was prepared to be the leader of Israel).” (WalkingKabbalah) “When one thinks about the ocean what words come to mind? I would mention the following: vast, powerful, intransigent, completely out of my control, able to do with me what it will. The Word of God is the same and more!” (Jewish Publication Society, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures)

“’Oh, how I love Your Torah! It is my meditation all the day.’ (97) not to praise his own devotion, but the excellence of God's law, as worthy of all love and continual mediation.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) “Three sorts of men he mentions, enemies, teachers, and ancients.” (Tho. Manton)

“‘You, through Your mitzvoth, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me,” (98) that is, every one of thy commandments; I am expert in them... ‘They are ever with me.’.. I have incorporated them, as it were, into my soul.” (John Trapp) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil (the Ten Commandments), according to the serpent, is “desireable to make one wise.” Jesus said, “The men of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of God.” They are not wiser but ’wiser in their own generation’; "that is, wise in things pertaining to this life. Or as Jeremy calls them, ‘wise to do evil;’ and when they have so done, wise to conceal and cloak it- all which in very deed is but folly.” (William Cowper)

“I have more understanding than all my teachers,’— of liberal arts such as literature, philosophy, mathematics, and social and physical sciences — for Your testimonies,’ found in Your torah, ‘are my meditation.’” (99) Teachers of secular knowledge are intended, wise in their special branches of learning, but not ‘wise unto salvation.’” (The Pulpit Comm.)

“‘I understand more than the ancients’— most of the congregation in the wilderness. Caleb and Joshua were, likewise, young. He was wiser than many of the “priests and Levites, or doctors of the law.” (Joseph Benson) "Advanced age does not necessarily give wisdom… ‘It is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.’ (Job 32:8) ’Antiquity is no help against stupidity’’ (Luther).” (The Pulpit Commentaries)— “’because I keep Your pikkudim’ (100) “By studying and practising God's commandments, and making them his rule, he learnt to behave himself wisely in all his ways, 1 Samuel 18:14… It is no reflection upon our teachers, but rather an honour to them, to improve so as really to excel them, and not to need them.” (Matthew Henry)

But beware: “It is St. Gregory's observation concerning the two disciples who, whilst Christ talked with them, knew him not; but in performing an act of hospitality towards him, to wit, breaking bread with him, they knew him, that they were enlightened, not by hearing him, but by doing divine precepts. Whosoever therefore will understand, let him first make haste to do what he heareth.” (Nathanael Hardy, 1618-1670)

”’I have restrained’— fettered, or imprisoned— ‘my feet from every evil way,’ from the sin which so easily ensnares me— that I may keep Your Davar’ (101) “The word ‘refrained’ warns us that we are naturally borne by our feet into the path of every kind of sin, and are hurried along it by the rush of human passions, so that even the wise and understanding need to check, recall, and retrace their steps, in order that they may keep God's word, and not become castaways.” (Agellius and Genebrardus)

“Were I to enjoy Hezekiah's grant, and to have fifteen years added to my life, I would be much more frequent in my applications to the throne of grace. Were I to renew my studies, I would take my leave of those accomplished trifles — the historians, the orators, the poets of antiquity— and devote my attention to the Scriptures of truth. I would sit with much greater assiduity at my Divine Master's feet, and desire to know nothing but ‘Jesus Christ, and him crucified.’

This wisdom, whose fruits are peace in life, consolation in death, and everlasting salvation after death — this I would trace— this I would seek— this I would explore through the spacious and delightful fields of the Old and New Testament.” (James Hervey)

“‘I have not departed from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me.’ (102) Moses taught Israel of old. The Master taught David. “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you. Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did at Baal Peor; for Yahweh your God has destroyed from among you all the men who followed Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to Yahweh your God are alive today, every one of you.” (Deuteronomy 4:1-4)

“‘How sweet are Your words unto my taste!’ pleasant for spiritual edification.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) At midnight he would rise and praise God; at midnight God satisfied his soul as with marrow and fatness; and in the sanctuary, his word was sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. (103) There is a blessed reality in religion. ” (Joseph Sutcliffe) “‘Through Your precepts,’ as related to atonement, "‘I get understanding,’ practical knowledge in all matters pertaining to this world and to the world to come.” (Paul E. Kretzmann)— ”therefore I hate every false way,’ “every thing which is contrary to that rule of truth and right, all false doctrine and worship, and all sinful or vicious courses.” (Matthew Poole)

But he loves and does the truth. “This most precious jewel is to be preferred above all treasure. If thou be hungry, it is meat to satisfy thee; if thou be thirsty, it is drink to refresh thee; if thou be sick, it is a present remedy; if thou be weak, it is a staff to lean unto; if thine enemy assault thee, it is a sword to fight withal; if thou be in darkness, it is a lantern to guide thy feet; if thou be doubtful of the way, it is a bright shining star to direct thee; if thou be in displeasure with God, it is the message of reconciliation; if thou study to save thy soul, receive the word engrafted, for that is able to do it: it is the word of life. Whose loveth salvation will love this word, love to read it, love to hear it; and such as will neither read nor hear it, Christ saith plainly, they are not of God. For the spouse gladly heareth the voice of the bridegroom; and ‘My sheep hear My voice,’ saith the Prince of pastors (John 5:27).”(Edwin Sundys, 1519-1587)

Psalm 119:105-112 – Nun- נ

105 Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. 106 I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments. 106 I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments. 107 I am afflicted very much; revive me, O Yahweh, according to Your word. 108 Accept, I pray, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Yahweh, and teach me Your judgments. 109 My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget Your law. 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I have not strayed from Your precepts. 111 Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. 112 I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever, to the very end.

Nun- “The ancient pictograph נ is a picture of a seed sprout representing the idea of continuing to a new generation. This pictograph has the meanings of continue, perpetuation, offspring or heir.” (OT Hebrew Lexical Dictionary) "According to Chaz’l (sages), Nun is said to represent both faithfulness and the reward for faithfulness.” (Hebrew for Christians)

Nun also has the numeric value of 50. It is therefore Sabbatical and points to the Year of emancipation and restoration at the end of time. On the seventh day— a memorial of Creation, the people of Israel were to rest. In the seventh year, the land of Israel was to enjoy a rest from harvesting (Leviticus 25). Finallly: “When a series of seven years reached the perfection of seven sevens, the 50th year was heralded by the trumpet of jubilee and a whole additional year was set aside as belonging to the Lord. The word ‘jubilee’ simply means a ram's horn; it came to mean a trumpet made from or in the shape of a ram's horn. Such horns were exclusively for religious use. The sacred trumpet gave its name to the year of the ram's horn, the jubilee year--a year to which the people of God were summoned in a striking and holy way. It was not simply a release from labor, not just a rest, but a year belonging to the Lord. In Leviticus 25 this exact expression occurs in connection with the seventh year rather than expressly with the jubilee year. Functionally such a year was a Sabbath rest for the land, and it brought enjoyment ‘to the LORD’ (Lv 25:4). But nothing could more directly express the implications and orientations of the 50th year.” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary)

The Fourth Commandment—“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."- “For six days work may be done, but the seventh day must be a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must surely be put to death. The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it as a lasting covenant for the generations to come. It is a sign between Me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” (Exodus 20: 8-11; 31:15-17)

“’Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.’ (105) “It shows me the way wherein I should go, both night and day.” (The Pulpit Commentary) “The commandment is [portrayed as] a lamp kept burning with the oil of the Spirit; it is like the lamps in the sanctuary, and the pillar of fire to Israel.” (Matthew Henry) “This is illustrated thus by Solomon, Proverbs 6:23; ‘The commandment is a lamp; and the torah is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” (Adam Clarke) That Light “burns as brightly in the hands of the youngest disciple to-day as it did in the hands of the old patriarchs. It is a quenchless light.” (Homilist)

“What we all want is… a little light on the dark and troubled path we have to tread, a lamp that will burn steadfastly and helpfully over the work we have to do. The stars are infinitely more sublime, meteors infinitely more superb and dazzling; but the lamp [of God’s Commandments with the atonement] shining in a dark place is infinitely closer to our practical needs.” (From “The Expositor") “The metaphor is taken from a man walking on a dangerous road, in the dark, except as he sees by a lamp, or lantern, where to set his feet, step by step, as he proceeds: but taking heed to his way by this friendly light, he passes on safely, and even comfortably, where otherwise he must have fallen into mischief or destruction. Such is this world and our passage through it; such is man without Revelation , or with revelation and without faith; and such is the use which true faith makes of revelation.” (Thomas Scott)

“‘I have sworn and confirmed that I will keep Your righteous judgments,’ (106) that is, enter into Covenant of the Ten Commandments with You. “So the Jews, after their return from Babylon, 'entered into a curse and into an oath to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God, and His judgments and His statutes.' This was a repetition of their solemn promise at Sinai (Exodus 19:8; Exodus 24:3; Exodus 24:7) The sworn promise of God's people to keep God's judgments is in dependence on the promised help of God's Spirit (Ezekiel 11:19-20; 2 Corinthians 3:5)… Life was promised on the condition of obedience (Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 6:24).” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) "The multitude stray in the broad way which leadeth to destruction, but Christ in His Word is the true light.” (Sutcliffe) This I know; and therefore, I follow Him in the path of life, beholding the blood of said covenant.

“’I am afflicted very much,' as Israel in Babylon. "Revive me, O Yahweh,’ (107) Show me how to deal with sin and show me the right offering, ‘according to Your word.’“ Lead me as the faithful priests and prophets lead the people. “‘Accept, I pray, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Yahweh’ not sacrifices out of his flocks and herds, such as were the voluntary and freewill offerings brought to the priests under the law, though there may be an allusion to them; nor out of his substance, such as David and his people willingly offered towards the building of the temple.— These are not the freewill offerings of his hands, but of his mouth; the spiritual sacrifices of prayer praise: prayer is an offering; see Psalm 141:2; and it is a freewill offering, when a man is assisted by the free Spirit of God, and can pour out his soul freely to the Lord, in the exercise of faith and love. Praise is an offering more pleasing to God than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs, because it glorifies him; and it is a freewill offering when it is of a man's own accord, comes from his heart; when he calls upon his soul, and all within him, to bless the Lord: and as every good man is desirous of having his sacrifices accepted with the Lord, so they are accepted by him when offered up through Christ, 1 Peter 2:5;— ‘and teach me thy judgments’; for though he was wiser than his enemies, and had more understanding than his teachers, or than the ancients; yet needed to be instructed more and more…” (John Gill)

“‘My life— Hebrews soul, נפשׁי nepheshi— ‘is continually in my hand.’ (109) To take one’s soul in his hand (Judges 12:3; 1 Samuel 19:5; 1 Samuel 28:21; Job 13:14) means: to be prepared to give up one’s life. Delitzsch cites the Talmudical saying: ‘Man’s prayer is not heard unless he takes his life in his hand; i.e. unless he is ready to sacrifice his life.’” (Johann Peter Lange) “‘The wicked have laid a snare for me,’ trying to lure me into the pit of disobedience- other religions; "‘yet I have not strayed from Your precepts.’ (110) “Notwithstanding the danger to which I was exposed, I maintained a steadfast adherence to thy commandments.” (Albert Barnes) “’Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.’ (111) In Psalm 119:57; he says, God is my portion... In this he says, ‘Thy testimonies [w / the atonement] have I taken as a heritage,’… To these he was heir; he had inherited them from his fathers, and he was determined to leave them to his family for ever.” (Adam Clarke) “‘I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever'—always, ‘to the very end’ (112) of my life. The inclination of the heart to good is the work of God: but man is, nevertheless, in this, as in other instances, said to perform it, when he listens to the call, and obeys the motions of his grace. We are not to judge of ourselves by what we sometimes say and do; but ‘by the general disposition and tendency of the heart and its affections’ Bp. Horne.” (Thomas Scott)

Morning Repost- Psalm 119:113-120- Samekh ש

113 I hate the double-minded, but I love Your torah. 114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your Word. 115 Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my Elohim! 116 Uphold me Elohim, as you promised, that I may live; and do not let me be ashamed of my hope. 117 Hold me up, and I shall be safe, and I shall observe Your statutes continually. 118 You reject all those who stray from Your statutes, for their deceit is falsehood. 119 You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies. 120 My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments.

“The fifteenth letter, Samekh, denotes a prop or pillar, and this agrees well with the subject matter of the strophe, in which God is twice implored to uphold his servant (Psa 119:116-117), while the utter destruction of those who make light of his law, or encourage scepticism regarding it, may be compared to the fate of the Philistine lords, on whom Samson brought down the roof of the house where they were making merry, by over-throwing the pillars which supported it.” (Neale and Littledale) “It is closely connected to the symbolism of the tree [perhaps of life]; it also represents stability, and a broken pillar represents death and mortality. In the Hebrew and Christian traditions, pillars of fire and smoke signify the presence of God, and God punished Lot's wife by changing her into a pillar of salt.” (Allison Protas) “The godly and the wicked live together in the visible church, as dross and good metal; but God, who is the purger of His church, will not fail by diversity of trials and judgments to put difference between them, and at last will make a perfect separation of them, and cast away the wicked as refuse.” (David Dickson)

“’I hate vain thoughts.’— Heb., ‘sedphim,’ halting between two opinions. See 1Kings 18:21—And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, ‘How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.’ Hence it signifies sceptical doubts [of the faith of our fathers].” (Christopher Wordsworth) “The word is used for the opinions of men; and may be applied to all heterodox opinions, human doctrines, damnable heresies.” (John Gill) “As the branches of a tree shoot out transversely, entangled and intertwined, so the thoughts of the human mind are, in like manner, confusedly mingled together, turning and twisting about in all directions.” (John Calvin) “Here is the sum and total account of all,— nothing but vanity.’” (Thomas Manton)— “’But I love Your torah.’ (113) which forbids those vain thoughts, and threatens them.” (Matthew Henry) “Chase them wholly away we never shall, but let them find no entertainment from us.” (Archbishop Trench) “Mark he doth not say he is free from vain thoughts, but he ‘hates’ them, he likes their company no better than one would a pack of thieves that break into his house. Neither saith he that he fully kept the law, but he ‘loved’ the law even when he failed of exact obedience to it." (William Gurnall)

“’You are my hiding place,’ or asylum, as the horns of the altar. ‘And You are my shield’ from eternal harm. I am safe by faith alone, but there is ”a time in which thou callest me to fight; then thou art my Shield and Protector.” (Adam Clarke) "'I hope in Your Word,’ (114) in Christ the Word, for acceptance and justification, for peace, pardon, and eternal salvation; all which are in Him.” (John Gill) “Of all the ingredients that sweeten the cup of human life, there is none more rich or powerful than [the Christian] hope. Its absence embitters the sweetest lot; its presence alleviates the deepest woe.” (William Grant) “This course a believer will as naturally take, in the hour of temptation and danger, as the offspring of the hen, on perceiving a bird of prey hovering over their heads, retire to their ‘hiding place,’ under the wings of the dam; or as the warrior opposeth his ‘shield’ to the darts which are aimed at him.” (George Horne)

“’Depart from me, you evildoers for I will keep’ [the Syriac version renders it, ‘that I may keep’] the commandments of my Elohim! (115) “’You go your way,’ he says in effect, ‘and I will go mine’; I am for obedience, you are not for that, and you are asking the wrong man to be your companion.” (B. E. Hawkins) — And therefore you cannot mix your leaven of life’s doctrines in my loaf of thought. “There is no fellowship between light and darkness, between righteousness and unrighteousness (2 Corinthians 10:16).” The Pulpit Commentary)

“‘Uphold me Elohim, as you promised, that I may live,' Give me that True Bread from heaven. “Up, ‘up above the littleness in which I have lived too long,—above the snares which have so often caught me,—above the stumbling blocks upon which I have so often fallen,—above the world,—above myself,—higher than I have ever reached yet,—above the level of my own mortality: worthy of thee,—worthy of the blood, with which I have been bought,—nearer to heaven,—nearer to thee,—hold thou me up.’” (James Vaughan of Brighton) — ”’And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.” (116) Give me bravery to proclaim the message of Christ crucified.

“‘Hold me up, and I shall be safe,’ or, that I may be saved. It is an acknowledgment of entire dependence on God for salvation- temporal and eternal." (Albert Barnes)— “and I shall observe Your statutes continually.’ (117) If God's right hand uphold us, we must in His strength go on in our duty, both with diligence and with pleasure.” (Matthew Henry) “‘You reject all those who stray from Your statues, for their deceit is falsehood’ (118)— "boasted proficiency in worldly wisdom,... deep laid stratagems, and all their crooked politicks.” (Thomas Scott)

“You put away all ‘the wicked of the earth’- Why are they thus characterized? Because here they flourish; their names shall be written in the earth (Jer 17:13); they grow great and of good reckoning and account here. Judas had the bag; they prosper in the world… It is their natural frame to be worldly, they only savour the things of the world; preferment, honour, greatness, it is their unum magnum; here is their pleasure, and here is their portion, their hope, and their happiness.” (Thomas Manton)— 'like dross’— the slag that is cooked off silver and gold, when it is made pure. “This shall be fully realized at the Lord's second coming, by the flaming fire which shall separate the dross (the wicked) from the pure metal (the godly).” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver. Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.” (Ezekiel 22:18-19)

“They are going into the lake of fire. Praise God they will not be around for the eternity (as some contend).” (R. Christopherson)— “’therefore I love Your testimonies.’ (119) because they “shall cause the wicked to cease (Hebrew, hishbataa (Hebrew #7673) as dross (1 Peter 1:23).” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) “Sooner or later God will set His foot on those who turn their foot from His commands: it has always been so, and it always will be so to the end. If the salt has lost its savour, what is it fit for but to be trodden under foot?” (C. H. Spurgeon)

“’My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments.’ (120) What is meant are sentences of punishment, as in Lev. 26, Deut. 28. Of these the poet is afraid, for omnipotence can change words into deeds forthwith. In fear of the God who has attested Himself in Exodus 34:7 and elsewhere, his skin shudders and his hair stands on end.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “Scenes of this kind, shown in vision to the prophets, cause their flesh to quiver, and all their bones to shake.” (Horne) “True religion consists in a proper mixture of fear of God, and of hope in His mercy.” (Payson) “I flew trembling to Jesus Christ as if the flames were taking hold of me: Oh! Christ will indeed save me or else I perish.” (Martyn)

“Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And Yahweh, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. “Behold, He is coming,” says Yahweh of hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to Yahweh an offering in righteousness.” (Malichi 3:1-3)

Evening Repost- Psalm 119— Ayin – o

121 I have done justice and righteousness; do not leave me to my oppressors. 122 Be surety for Your servant for good; do not let the proud oppress me. 123 My eyes fail from seeking Your salvation (Yeshua) and Your righteous word. 124 Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy, and teach me Your statutes (chukkot). 125 I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies. 126 It is time for You to act, O Yahweh, for they have regarded Your law (torah) as void. 127 Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, than fine gold! 128 Therefore all Your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right; I hate every false way.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:3-5) “The spoken Word is the only means employed throughout the six days’ Creation, cf. Psalm 33:6; Psalm 33:9, ‘By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.… For He spake, and it was done: He commanded, and it stood fast.’ Creation by a word combines the idea of perfect facility with that of absolute power.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) “The Ancient picture for this letter is a picture of an eye.” (OT Hebrew Lexical Dictionary)— “whereas the classic Hebrew script (Ketav Ashurit) is constructed of a Yod and embedded Zayin… Ayin further represents the primeval light, that is, the spiritual light of God mentioned in Genesis 1:3-5 (in distinction to celestial lights mentioned in Genesis 21:14-18). According to midrash, this divine Light is far greater than the light that emanates from the sun and stars. Though concealed in the Torah, the spiritual eye can behold the presence of this radiance, but only by means of inner eye given by the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit)” (Hebrew for Christians)

“Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” Open your eyes. Spiritual eyes or ayin “teaches us to see beyond and relates to time. It is the aspect of the visionary, to see not just what is happening in front of us, but to envision beyond that – to know one’s direction 5, 10, 100 years ahead and beyond… Ayin is included in a great number of words associated with time (עת – time, שעה – hours, עתיד – future, עבר – past, רגע – moment, עוד – until, עד – eternity) and vision. As an example, my kabbalah teacher told a story once of his grandfather as a very old man, out in the yard of the family house, moving large rocks, clearing the land, creating a garden and planting trees. My teacher asked – ‘Why was my grandfather planting those trees? He was too old and they would not mature in time to feed him.’ It was because he was planting them for the next generation ahead, beyond himself. That is vision. It teaches us to understand the cause and effect in our lives- how past actions lead to future outcomes, and how to think for the future.” (Walking Kabbalah)

“‘I have done justice and righteousness.’ Not that he was absolutely free from serving injustice to others, but he was considered perfect in respect to torah. He had, for example, repented of his sins against Uriah and had thus been forgiven, according to God’s prophet. It is equivalent to saying that he had kept the torah of God, “or had made that the rule of his conduct.” (Albert Barnes) “‘I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day, Acts 23:1.” (John Trapp) “‘Leave me not to mine oppressors;’ (121) rather, ‘thou wilt not leave me to mine oppressors.’ The nexus of the thought seems to be, ‘As I have not oppressed any, so wilt thou not suffer me to be crushed by oppression.’” (Pulpit Commentary)

“’Be surety’— pledge Yourself— ‘for Your servant for good.’ against my oppressors (Gen 43:9; Isa 38:14).” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) “It means, properly, ‘to mix, to mingle;’ hence, to braid, to interweave; then, to exchange, to barter. Then it means to mix or intermingle interests; to unite ourselves with others so that their interests come to be our own; and hence, to take one under our protection, to become answerable for, to be a surety for: as, when one endorses a note for another, he mingles his own interest, reputation, and means with his. So Christ becomes the security or surety -enguos - of His people, Hebrews 7:22.” (Barnes)

The wage of sin is death. “But behold! ‘Where is the fury of the oppressor?’ Isa 51:13. The surety is found—the debt is paid—the ransom is accepted—the sinner is free.” (Charles Bridges) "As a rich person, by becoming surety for a poor man, rescues him from oppression or imprisonment; so the Lord delivers his servants from their enemies and from impending ruin, by undertaking their cause. Christ, our Surety, having paid our debt and ransom, rescues us from merited condemnation, and engages for all the blessings of complete salvation to every true believer (Hebrews 7:20-22).” (Thomas Scott)— “‘Do not let the proud oppress me’ (122)— for they will soon exceed their commission.

“Sustain and keep me blameless till the coming of Christ.” (Adam Clarke) "My eyes fail from watching for Your salvation, and Your righteous word,’ (123) the award of righteousness.” (F. B. Meyers), “which many times bear a long date.” (John Trapp) Give me Ayin, eyes to see, that is, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor 4:5-6)

“’Deal with Your servant according to Your mercy, and teach me Your statutes,’ (124) even your atonement. Cause me to repent and forgive me. “David had Nathan and Gad the prophets; and beside them, the ordinary Levites to teach him. He read the word of God diligently, and did meditate in the law night and day; but he acknowledgeth all this was nothing unless God did teach him. Other teachers speak to the ear, but God speaks to the heart: so Paul preached to Lydia, but God opened her heart. Let us pray for this grace.” (William Cowper) (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)

“’I am Your servant;’ (125) desiring nothing more than to occupy a position of the lowest service before Jehovah; ‘give me understanding,’ a proper appreciation and insight, ‘that I may know Your testimonies,’ the Word in which God testifies of Himself, for the truth, against sin.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “Let me want no grace, which may enable me to serve thee.”(William Cowper) Jesus said: “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

“‘It is time for You to act, O Yahweh,' ’Surely I come quickly’ were the very last words Scripture records as falling from Christ’s lips (Rev. 22:20). But, alas, what a vast number of His disciples have ceased to expect Him, and perhaps, have even ceased to desire Him! ” (James H. Brookes) In the place of eager expectation are many who “regard torah as void.’ (126) or, abrogated thy law; have professedly and openly cast off its authority, resolvedly preferring their own wills and lusts before it, trampled upon thy plain commands, and despised both thy promises and thy threatenings. They have not only sinned through ignorance and infirmity, but presumptuously and maliciously.” (Matthew Poole) These confessors of the faith "render it of none effect by their traditions.” (Thomas Scott)

“‘Therefore,’— because of the excellencies of thy law, as detailed already— ‘I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, than fine gold!’ (127)—“which he might perhaps gain by a disavowal of them.” (Keil & Delitzsch) Let not the contradiction of many move you from your faith.” (A. Maclaren) “Let us continue to keep the commandments of God... Thus shall we nurse our souls in patience and faith, Luke 21:19, conscious that though we cannot be God’s timekeepers, yet the Judge will come and will not tarry, Hebrews 10:37.” (F. B. Meyers) "While they greedily grasp after gold, and fine gold, I lay hold upon eternal life, 1 Timothy 6:10-12. ’And therefore,’— from the same ground again as before, by a holy antiperistasis— all Your precepts concerning all things I consider to be right. I hate every false way’ (128)— whether in point of opinion or practice; all sinful deviations and prevarications.” (John Trapp)

“We must not choose those precepts which suit our inclinations, while we set aside others which oppose our lusts, but 'esteem ALL God's precepts concerning ALL things' the obligatory rule of our heath and lives…

But Jesus lays down the universality of the obligation to obey every ‘jot’ and ‘tittle’ of the law (Matthew 5:17-19), and the danger of 'breaking one of the least commandments.' I wish for the abolition of no commandment of God, but rather the abolition of my sin, which the commandment condemns (Rivetus).” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown)

Psalm 119:129-136 Pey

129 Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. 130 The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. 131 I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for Your commandments. 132 Look upon me and be merciful to me, as Your custom is toward those who love Your name. 133 Make my steps secure through your promise and let no iniquity have dominion over me. 134 Redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may keep Your precepts. 135 Make Your face shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes. 136 Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep Your torah.

The early Semitic looks like a mouth “but evolved to the letter p in the middle Semitic scripts…This letter evolved into the פ and ף (final pey) in the modern Hebrew script.” (OT Hebrew Lexical Dictionary) "Pey has the numeric value of 80. The word Peh means ‘mouth’ and by extension, ‘word,’ ‘expression,’ ‘vocalization,’ ‘speech.’” (Hebrew for Christians) “In Kabbalah, speech is actually considered to be a spiritual power, which can cause good or evil depending on how it is used. In a certain way, what one thinks is how one is, and what one speaks has the power to become. Violent words lead to violent actions.” (Walking Kabbalah) But David's speach and mood "is not that of unfeeling self-glorying, but of sorrow like that of Jeremiah, because of the contempt of Jahve, and the self-destruction of those who contemn Him.” (Keil & Delitzsch)

The Message that comes into our spiritual eyes through Divine revelation is not supposed to stay there. Often it is said of a biblical character, “they pondered these things in their heart.” “But”- we are admonished by Peter— “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” (1 Peter 3:15-17) Our views are not often received with gladness, but we must speak them, being transparent.

“‘Your testimonies are wonderful.’ As comprehending high and hidden mysteries, such as are far above the reach of human reason.” (John Trapp) “There is a height, length, depth, and breadth in thy word and testimonies that are truly astonishing.” (Adam Clarke)— “truth without any mixture of error, and their end, salvation for lost man.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) “‘Therefore my soul keeps them.’ (129) as a rich treasure, which he laid up in the cabinet of his heart, and preserved as what was most rare and valuable.” (John Gill) “Though I cannot comprehend them [fully], yet I am comprehended by them; and though I cannot do them as I would, yet I am doing at them as I can. I admire what I cannot attain to.” (John Trapp) “I make them the rule of my faith and practice, of my principles and actions, of my tempers, words, and works, and of my whole conduct toward God and man.” (Joseph Benson)

“’The entrance of Your words gives light’— “the very beginnings and rudiments of them; the first discoveries of those sacred mysteries; and much more the depths of them, in which their chief excellency consists.” (Matthew Poole) “The beginning of them; the first three chapters in Genesis, what light do they give into the origin of all things; the creation of man, his state of innocence; his fall through the temptations of Satan, and his recovery and salvation by Christ, the seed of the woman! ” (John Gill) It gives understanding to ‘the simple.’ (130) "There are none so knowing that God cannot blind [as Paul once]; none so blind and ignorant whose mind and heart his Spirit cannot open.” (William Gurrnall)

And where papist charge the Word with difficulty, “that simple men and idiots should not be suffered to read it, because it is obscure; all these frivolous allegations of men are annulled by this one testimony of God, that it gives light to the simple.” (William Cowper)

“‘I opened my mouth and panted,’— as a wild creature pants for water— for I longed for Your commandments.’ (131) Panting for holiness. A rare hunger; the evidence of much grace, and the pledge of glory.” (C. H. Spurgeon) Longed to know and obey them, “longed to be conformed to their spirit, longed to teach them to others.” (C. H. Spurgeon) “He puts to shame our indifference. If his longing was not excessive, how defective is ours!” (Expositor's Bible Commentary) “Many religious people long after the promises, and they do well; but they must not forget to have an equal longing for the commandments.... The Decalogue in ten words comprise the whole duty of man, and reacheth to the very soul, and all the motions of the heart.” (C H. Spurgeon) “There [the heart],they must be deposited, as the tables of testimony in the ark, there they must have the innermost and uppermost place. Those that see God's Commandments to be admirable will prize it highly and preserve it carefully, as that which they promise themselves great things from.” (Matthew Henry)

“’Look upon me and be merciful to me, as Your custom is toward those who love Your name.’ (132) “The Hebrew word is ‘judgment:’ ‘according to the judgment to the lovers of thy name.’…The idea is, ‘Treat me according to the rules which regulate the treatment of thy people.’ Let me be regarded as one of them, and be dealt with accordingly.” (Albert Barnes) “’Make my steps secure through your promise, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.’ He who is willing that any one sin should rule in his heart, though he should be free from all other forms of sin, cannot be a pious man. See James 2:10— ‘For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.’” (Albert Barnes)

“‘Deliver me from “constraint on the part of man, so that I may be free to act as I please. Give me true religious liberty, and let me not be under any compulsion or constraint. The word rendered ‘deliver’ is that which is usually rendered ‘redeem.’ It is used here in the large sense of deliverance; and the prayer is an expression of what the true friends of religion have always sought, desired, and demanded - ‘freedom’ of opinion - the richest blessing which man can enjoy.” (Albert Barnes)— ‘that I may keep Your precepts. Make Your face shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.’ (134-135) “The believer's incessant cry is, Let me see ‘the King's face.’” (Charles Bridges) “As His face shines upon us, He makes our hearts shine back upon Him and upon the world. He does not illuminate our path mechanically, but sets His light within us livingly. He does not use us as passive reflectors of His brightness, but as burning and shining lights. (J. Thomas, M. A.) Yea at last fellow pilgram, we shall at last see His face, Revelation 22:4 and awake in His likeness.

“’Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because men do not keep Your torah.’ (136) Conformity to Christ is the standard of the believer’s growth in grace. David had ‘that mind in him which was also in Jesus Christ’: his grief was therefore intense, and his tears flowed as rivers down his fun-owed cheeks, when he looked around, and saw multitudes ruining themselves and others, as well as dishonouring God, by impenitently despising and violating his holy law, and neglecting his salvation.” (Thomas Scott) “So the Saviour wept over Jerusalem Luke 19:41; and so the apostle said that he had 'great heaviness and continual sorrow' in his heart, on account of his ‘brethren,’ his ‘kinsmen according to the flesh.’” (Albert Barnes) “This was Lot’s case at Sodom, 2 Peter 2:7-8, and is many a good man’s still; every profane wretch being a Hazael to his eyes, a Hadadrimmon to his heart.” (John Trapp) “It is not overweening pride which causes the believers to speak to the godless in such an emphatic manner, but a sincere love for their soul's salvation.” (Paul E. Kretzmann)

Morning Repost- Psalm 119: 137-144- Tzaddi צ

138 Righteous are You, O Yahweh, and upright are Your judgments. 138 Your testimonies, which You have commanded, are righteous and very faithful. 139 My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten Your words. 140 Your promise has been thoroughly tested; therefore Your servant loves it. 141 I am small and despised, yet I do not forget Your precepts . 142 Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your torah is truth. 143 Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet Your commandments are my delights. 144 The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting; give me understanding, and I shall live.

“All these verses begin with Tzaddi, the eighteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet... with some form of the word which we render righteous, or righteousness.” (William S. Plumer) It “means ‘side,’ but is also related to the idea of a stronghold, which is often built on the side of a mountain. The pictograph is a picture of a trail as leading up to a destination or stronghold.” (Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary)

“And this is His name by which He will be called: ‘Yahweh Our Righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23:6) “The whole scope of the strophe is the strong grasp which even the young and inexperienced soul can have of righteousness amidst the troubles of the world.” (Neale and Littledale)

“‘Righteous are You, O Yahweh, and upright are Your judgments.’ (137)— (Deut 32:4.) "The ‘righteous’ is singular, ‘judgments’ plural - i:e., thy judgments are each one righteous.” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) "They are according to the rules of justice and equity...— all the providential dealings of God with His people, and also the final judgment.” (John Gill) “Your testimonies (that) You have commanded (are) righteous and very faithful (138)- i.e. The gospel, as Isaiah 8:20. And the commandment thereof to hear Christ, Matthew 17:5, and to believe in His name, 1 John 3:23; this is a faithful and true saying, 1 Timothy 1:15,— not avengelaion, as the Jews blasphemously call it, or fabula de Christo, a fable about Christ, as that blackmouthed pope.” (John Trapp) “Your testimonies are faithfulness itself as concerns the fulfillment of the promises attached to them (Psalm 119:86; Psalm 93:5).” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown)

“’My zeal has consumed me. ' The fire of zeal, like the fire which consumed Solomon's sacrifice, cometh down from heaven; this was the zeal burned in the disciples (Luke 24), that consumed David here, and dried up the very marrow of Christ: John 2:17.” (Abraham Wright — “’because my enemies have forgotten Your words.’ (139) and adopted traditions of man. “A proper phrase to set forth in the bosom of the visible church who do not wholly deny and reject word and rule of Scripture, but yet live on as though they had forgotten it: they do not observe it; as if God had never spoken any such thing, or given them any such rule. They that reject and condemn such things as the word enforceth.” (Thomas Manton) Godly zeal “arises from an enlightened mind, a strong conviction of the truth of revealed religion, from unfeigned love to God and to the souls of men. Then the prophet cries on the walls of Jerusalem, then Paul counts all losses for Christ but as dung, then the martyr dares the lion and braves the fire, then the missionary forgets his parents to seek and save the heathen world.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)

“Your word is very pure,’ or, ‘exceedingly purified’: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, Psalm 12:6; free from, all drossy matter; from any mixtures, or the corruptions and doctrines of men; and which tends and leads to purity of heart and life; ‘therefore Your servant loves it (140).” (John Gill) "God's word is righteous and cannot [nor His person] be impeached." (C. H. Spurgeon) “It is not a purified thing, but a thing that purifies. ‘Now ye are clean,’ said Christ,; ‘by the word I have spoken unto you.’ God's word is a fire to purify as well as a hammer to break.” (Adam Clarke) Therein, small sacrifices are accepted and big ones rejected. “Proofs of both we have in the widow's mite and Cain's rich oblation; whereof the one was rejected, the other received. Happy are we though we cannot say, ‘We have done as God commands,’ if out of a good heart we can say, ‘We love to do what He commands.’” (William Cowper)

“I am small and despised’—Some render ‘young’; "as if it had respect to the time of his anointing by Samuel, when he was overlooked and despised in his father's family, 1 Samuel 16:11; but the word here used is not expressive of age, but of state, condition, and circumstances; and the meaning is, that he was little in his own esteem, and in the esteem of men, and was despised; and that on account of religion, in which he was a type of Christ, Psalm 22:6.” (John Gill) — "'yet I do not forget Your precepts’ (141) I am not deterred from keeping them, and from avowing my purpose to obey them, because I am despised for it.” (Albert Barnes)

“’Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, ’outlasting all earthly cavil and enmity.” (Paul E Kretzmann) “As if it had been said, that all other rules of life, with whatever attractions they may appear to be recommended, are but a shadow, which quickly vanishes away.” (Calvin) "'And Your torah is truth.” (142) “An embodiment of that immutable morality which rests upon a basis of absolute eternal truth.” (The Pulpit Commentaries) “Human governments change. Old dynasties pass away. New laws are enacted under new administrations. Customs change. Opinions change. People change. The world changes.—

But as God Himself never changes, so it is with His law. That law is founded on eternal truth, and can never change.” (Albert Barnes) He is a Priest forever, after the order of Melchesideck, and shall be King.

“’Trouble and anguish have overtaken me,’ or, ‘found me’ Like dogs tracking out a wild beast hiding or fleeing.” (A. R. Fausset)— ‘yet Your commandments are my delights.’ The joy of Christ and the joy of the world cannot consist together. A heart delighted with worldly joy cannot feel the consolations of the Spirit; the one of these destroys the other: but in sanctified trouble, the comforts of God's word are felt and perceived in a most sensible manner.” (Abraham Wright)

“‘And the righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting— Thy moral law was not made for one people, or for one particular time; it is as imperishable as thy nature, and of endless obligation. It is that law by which all the children of Adam shall be Judged." (Adam Clarke) ‘Give me understanding’— to know and practice it—‘ and I shall live ‘ I shall be kept from those sins which deserve and bring death.' (Matthew Poole)-- "because thou didst fulfill the work of the law in my heart.” (Adam Clarke)

Tzaddi צ (side)—Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe." (John 20:27)

Psalm 119:145-152 —Qoph

145 I cry out with my whole heart; hear me, O Yahweh! I will keep Your statutes. 146 I cry out to You; save me, and I will keep Your testimonies. 147 I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word. 148 My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your promises. 49 Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; O Lord, revive me according to Your justice . 150 They draw near who follow after wickedness; they are far from Your torah. 151 You are near, O Yahweh, and all Your commandments are truth. 152 Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever.

The Qoph is the picture of the back of a man’s head, as on watch. Always on watch. The root word is a circuit or cycle. “When all of the words derived from this parent root are compared the common theme of a circle or revolution are found. The pictograph of this letter is probably a picture of the sun at the horizon in the sense of a revolution of the sun.” (OT Hebrew Lexical Dictionary) It "represents all the cycles of nature, changing seasons, monthly and yearly cycles.” (Walking Kabbalah)

Prayerful watching is always in season. This psalm speaks of David’s day, morning and evening, as well as Israel’s yearly feasts, pointng to the end. "Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year." (Exodus 34:20)

“’I cry out with my whole heart.’ It is not a piece, it is not a corner of the heart, that will satisfy the Maker of the heart… God looks not at the elegancy of your prayers, to see how neat they are; nor yet at the geometry of your prayers, to see how long they are; nor yet at the arithmetic of your prayers, to see how many they are; nor yet at the music of your prayers, nor yet at the sweetness of your voice, nor yet at the logic of your prayers; but at the sincerity of your prayers, how hearty they are.” (Thomas Brooks)— “’hear me, O Yahweh! I will keep Your statutes.’ (145) He did not ask to be delivered that he might sin with impunity; his cry was to be delivered from sin itself... Salvation brings all these good things in its train. David had no idea of a salvation which would allow him to live in sin, or abide in error: he knew right well that there is no saving a man while he abides in disobedience.” (C. H. Spurgeon)

“’I cry out to You; save me,’ from my sins, my corruptions, my temptations, all the hindrances that lie in my way, that I may ‘keep thy testimonies.’" (Matthew Henry) (146) that I may serve You.

“’I rise before the dawning of the morning,' even the time of Adam and Eve], and cry for help.’ His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lam 3:22-23) Early prayers are undisturbed by the agitating cares of life, and resemble the sweet melody of those birds which sing loudest and sweetest when fewest windows are open to listen to them.” (John Morison)— “’I hope in Your Word’; (147) that my morning prayer may “perfume my clothes, sweeten my food, oil the wheels of my particular vocation, keep me company upon all occasions, and gild over all my natural, civil, and religious actions. I wish that, after I have poured out my prayer in the name of Christ, according to the will of God, having sowed my seed, I may expect a crop, looking earnestly for the springing of it up, and believing assuredly that I shall reap in time if I faint not.” (George Swinnock) “Knowest thou not, O man, that thou owest the daily firstfruits of thy heart and voice to God? Thou hast a daily harvest, a daily revenue.” (Ambrose)

Effective fervent prayers, which avail much, were his. "This is the third time that he mentions that he cried. He cried, and cried, and cried again..” (C. H. Spurgeon) “We use to knock at a door thrice, and then depart. Our Lord Jesus ‘prayed the third time, saying the same words’ (Mat 26:44), ‘Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.’ So the apostle Paul: ‘For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me:’ 2Co 12:8. So, ‘And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again:’ 1Ki 17:21. This, it seemeth, was the time in which they expected an answer in weighty cases.” (Thomas Manton)

“‘My eyes are awake through the night watches,’ —so called from military watches of the nations, or a dividing of the night to keep guard, spiritually for Hebrews. The idea here is, "that he anticipated these regular divisions of the night in order that he might engage in devotion.” (Albert Barnes)— “’that I may meditate on Your promises.’ (148) This is where the battles of the day are won. It is on meditation in the promises. Faith comes by hearing. “This had become meat and drink to him. Meditation was the food of his hope, and the solace of his sorrow." (C. H. Spurgeon)

“David represents himself as ‘rising early, and late taking rest,’ on purpose that he might meditates in the Word, "as if there were much in the Word which was not to be detected by a cursory glance, and which required the strictest application both of the head and the heart. The Bible is a book in which we may continually meditate, and yet not exhaust its contents... He might have been studying the book for years,—nay, we are sure that he had been,—and yet, as though he were just entering on a new course of reading, with volume upon volume to peruse, lie must rise before day to prosecute the study.” (Henry Melvill)

“‘Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; O Lord, revive me according to Your justice.’ His eyes saw God’s promises shining in the nightly darkness, and making meditation better than sleep.” (Expositor's Bible Commentary) In contrast, the wicked awake after daybreak and seek my life without private devotions. “They draw near [to David for harm] who follow after wickedness;’ after mischief or evil; that which is sinful in itself, and injurious to others. “With קרבוּ (cf. קרב ) is associated the idea of rushing upon him with hostile purpose.” (Keil & Delitzsch)— "'They are far from Your torah.' (150) “And so having nothing to restrain their rage; since they have cast their cords from them.” (John Trapp)

By obedience and medication with supplication, we can enjoy the confidence—"‘Thou art near, O Lord.’ This was once man's greatest blessing, and source of sweetest consolation. It was the fairest flower which grew in Paradise; but sin withered it, the flower faded, it drooped, it died. Gen 3:8; Gen 4:16. It must be so once more; the flower must once again bloom, again it must revive; even upon earth must it blossom, or in heaven it will never put forth its fragrance.” (James Harington Evans) Though ‘the High and Lofty One, whose name is Holy’—though the just and terrible God, yet art thou made nigh to thy people, and they to thee, ‘by the blood of the cross.’ ” (Charles Bridges)— “’And all Your commandments are truth’ — Considered with the promises and threatenings which belong to them.” (Joseph Benson) “Sometimes men command, but without reason; sometimes they threaten, but without effect. Herod's commanding, Rabshakeh's railing, Jezebel's proud boasting against Elijah, may prove this.” (William Cowper) “‘Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever.’ The whole plan of redemption was emphatically ‘founded for ever:’ the Saviour was ‘foreordained before the foundation of the world.’ The people of God were ‘chosen in Christ before the world began.’” (Charles Bridges) — the Good News was first to the Jews and then the Gentile Nations. “They are ‘nigh’ to persecute and destroy me; thou art nigh, O Lord, to help me.” (J. J. Stewart Perowne) “He who has God near him, and who realises that His ‘commandments are truth,’ can look untrembling on mustering masses of enemies. This singer had learned that before danger threatened.” (Expositor's Bible Commentary)

Psalm 119:153-160— Resh ר

153 Consider my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget Your torah. 154 Plead my cause and redeem me; give me a new life, according to Your word 155 Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek Your statutes.156 Great are Your tender mercies, O Yahweh; give me new life guided by Your judgments. 157 Many are my persecutors and my enemies, yet I do not turn from Your testimonies. 158 I see the treacherous, and am disgusted, because they have not accepted your promise. 159 Consider how I love Your precepts; in keeping with your mercy, give me new life. 160 The entirety of Your promise is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

“The Ancient picture for this letter is… the head of a man. This letter has the meanings of head or man as well as chief, top, beginning or first.” (Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary) “It is the symbol of choosing between greatness and degradation. In it is the word for poor רש Rash, but when it is filled the power of the Aleph it becomes Rosh ראש, head or first, expressing the Firstness, Oneness, and Eternity of the Creator, and the qualities of being a leader, not a follower.” (Walking Kabbalah)

“‘Consider my affliction.' Look upon it, and let thine eye affect thy heart.” (John Trapp) “God is never unmindful of His people's afflictions, but He will have us to put Him in remembrance (Isaiah 43:26), to spread our case before Him, and then leave it to His compassionate consideration to do in it as in His wisdom He shall think fit, in His own time and way.” (Matthew Henry)— “‘and deliver me for I do not forget Your torah.’ (153) I endeavor to be obedient, submissive, patient.” (Albert Barnes) God looks upon a righteous man who seeks… “To deliver him; ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt’ (Exo 3:7). To advance him; ‘He hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden’ (Luk 1:48):… ‘The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering’ (Gen 4:4).” (Hugh de St. Victor)

“’Plead my cause.‘ "Be my Advocate in my suit.’” (Adam Clarke) “Israel at last shall confidently anticipate the Lord's pleading her cause (Micah 7:9)“ (Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown) by “Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins.” (1 Jo 2:2) “The soul hard pressed by the accuser in the conscience (1Jo 3:20); before the world; at the throne of grace (Zec 3:1-10); at the bar of judgment. The accused soul committing its case to the Advocate: 1Jo 2:2; 2Ti 1:12. How the case will go. He never lost one yet.” (C. A. Davis) — “‘and redeem’— gaal— ‘me.’ taken from the office of a Redeemer, or next of kin among the Israelites, to whom it belonged to redeem the inheritance, or ransom the person, of his impoverished or enslaved relative; and also to be his patron and defender against injustice and oppression, and the avenger of his blood, if he were slain. (Lev 25:25-28; 47-55. Num 35:11-15. Ruth 4:1-8.) In this character of a Redeemer, David sought to God for protection, support, and animating consolation, in his trials.” (Thomas Scott)

“Quicken as you promised.’ (154) for I looked unto Jesus, a quickening spirit: “1 Corinthians 15:45. ‘The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.’ As He has given you life, so He is ready to give it more and more abundantly; this will make you to live to Him, and to be unweariedly active for Him.” (Nathanael Vincent)— “’Give me new life, according to Your Word.’ No gun in all our arsenals can match it.” (C. H. Spurgeon) “The special aid that he seeks is quickening, for which he cries to the Lord again and again by the Holy Spirit. Ruach Ha-Kodesh רוח קודש. “Except the Lord's clients shall find new influence from God from time to time in their troubles, they are but as dead men in their exercise; for, ‘Quicken me’ imports this.” (David Dickson)

“’Salvation is far from the wicked.’ There is no hope of their conversion.— “‘For they do not seek Your statutes.’ (155) And they who do not seek [obedience to the faith], shall not find.” (Adam Clarke) “Christ, the author of salvation, is far from them: He was far from the unbelieving Jews, even though salvation was of them, and He, the Saviour, was among them; and He is far from all unconverted persons, as to knowledge of Him, faith in Him, or love to Him.” (John Gill) “Thou hast not a friend on the bench, not an attribute in all God's name will speak for thee.” (William Gurnall) Thus, “My wicked enemies shall certainly be destroyed.” (Matthew Poole)

“”Great are Your tender mercies,’ etc. Here the Psalmist pleads the largeness of God's mercy, the immensity of his tender love; yea, he speaks of mercies— mercies tender, mercies great; ‘give me new life guided by Your judgments.’ (156} And with the glorious Jehovah he makes this a plea for his one leading prayer, the prayer for quickening,” (C. H. Spurgeon) "which had made him to differ.” (Charles Bridges)

“’Many are my persecutors and my enemies’— He sets this over against the many tender mercies of God…. The disciple cannot be loved where his Master is hated. The seed of the serpent must oppose the seed of the woman..." (C H Spurgeon)— “‘yet do I not decline from Your testimonies’ (157)— from reading and hearing the word of God; and from embracing and professing the doctrines contained in it; and from the worship of God according to it, for which he was hated and persecuted.” (John Gill)

“’I see [literally] ’treacherous transgressors’ [A. R. Faussett] and am disgusted,’ (158) I understood their character, their object, their way, and their end.” (C. H. Spurgeon) These were men of the king’s court and the Jewish tabernacle. They are professors of faith “that dealt treacherously with God and men, made a profession of religion, but walked not agreeably to it, which is matter of grief to good men; see Philippians 3:18.” (John Gill)- “’because they have not accepted your promise,' of an Advocated and Redeemer, which out crush the head if the serpent. "I never thought the world had been so wicked, when the Gospel began, as now I see it is; I rather hoped that everyone would have leaped for joy to have found himself freed from the filth of the Pope, from his lamentable molestations of poor troubled consciences, and that through Christ they would by faith obtain the celestial treasure they sought after before with such vast cost and labour, though in vain. And especially I thought the bishops and universities would with joy of heart have received the true doctrines; but I have been lamentably deceived.”(Martin Luther)

“Consider how I love Your precepts,’ etc. (159) as is evinced in that when 'I beheld the transgressors I was grieved.' He begs to God to behold this, not as meritorious of grace, but as a distinctive mark of a godly man.” (A. R. Jamieson)—“’give me new life.’ He prays again the third time, using the word “revive.” Condsider my love. “The comfort of a Christian militant, in this body of sin, is rather in the sincerity and fervency of his affections than in the absolute perfection of his actions.” (William Cowper)

“‘The entirety of Your promise is truth,’ literally, “The head [רֹאשׁ־ resh) of Your Word [dabar] is truth.” Concerning the “head” of Psalm 119:60, there are various views of its meaning. “Does he refer to the first word in the Book of Genesis, בראשית bereshith, ‘in the beginning?’” (Adam Clarke) Many refer it there; “but others to the first part of the decalogue, concerning the unity of God and his worship.” (John Gill) “It is all the same in the end whether we render אשׁר quippe qui or siquidem . ראשׁ in Psalms 119:160 signifies the head-number of sum. If he reckons up the word of God in its separate parts and as a whole, truth is the denominator of the whole, truth is the sum-total.” (Keil & Delitzsch) And all shall have their fulfllment. “The church is the bush that burneth with fire, but cannot be consumed.” (William Cowper) But Christ is always the brazen serpent. “A good promise is a good nurse, both to the young babe and to the decrepit old man. Your apothecaries' best cordials in time will lose their spirits, and sometimes the stronger they are, the sooner. But [of God’s promises] hath a promise cheered thee, say, twenty, thirty, forty years ago? Taste it but now afresh, and thou shalt find it as fresh, and as full of refreshment as ever. If it hath been thy greatest joy in thy joyful youth, I tell thee, it hath as much joy in it for thy sad old age.” (Anthony Tuckhey)

Morning Repost- Psalm 119:161-168- Shin ש

161 Princes persecute me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of Your word. 162 I find joy in Your promises as one who finds great treasure. 163 I hate and abhor lying, but I love Your law (torah). 164 Seven times a day I praise You, because of Your righteous judgments. 165 Great peace have those who love Your torah, and nothing causes them to stumble. 166 Yahweh, I hope for Your salvation, and I do Your commandments. 167 My soul keeps Your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. 168 I keep Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You.

“The Ancient picture for this letter is… a picture of the TWO front teeth. This letter has the meanings of teeth, sharp and press (function of the teeth when chewing).” (OT Hebrew Lexical Dictionary) It also symbolizes TWO flames of fire — “Both the tooth and fire… refer to it as a process of transformation, breaking down, grinding into particles, building anew, cooking, the firing of a clay pot into a form.” (Walking Kabbalah)

Contrast the TWO types: “Man's wrath, when hottest, is but a temperate climate to the wrath of the living God… Man's wrath cannot hinder the access of God's love to the creature, which hath made the saints sing in the fire, in spite of their enemies' teeth. But the creature under God's wrath is like one shut up in a close oven, no crevice is open to let any of the heat out, or any refreshing in to him.” (William Gurnall) His lot will be eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord, if he goes back.

“Princes’— the princes of Israel, who joined in the conspiracy with Absalom— ‘persecute me without a cause.’ It is “the common lot of the best men to be persecuted; and the case is the worse if princes be the persecutors, for they have not only the sword in their hand, and therefore can do the more hurt, but they have the law on their side, and can do it with reputation and a colour of justice.” (Matthew Henry)

Likewise, the prophets and apostles later suffered from those within the camp. —“men whom God had placed in such honourable stations, to the end they might be the pillars of the Church.” (John Calvin) “’But my heart stands in awe of Your word’ (161) — not in awe of the princes, but of the Word of God; he had a greater regard to that than to them: when they in effect said, ‘go, serve other gods’, 1 Samuel 26:19; he remembered what the word of God says, ‘thou shall have no other gods before me’, Exodus 20:3; and this was a means of preserving him from sinning.” (John Gill)

“‘I find joy in Your promises as one who finds great treasure,’ (162) as the man who found the treasure hid in the field ‘for joy thereof went and sold all that he had, and bought that field’ (Matthew 13:44).” (Jamieson, Faussett, Brown) There is much wisdom found in great classic literature, but in the Scripture, “as the Rabbins say, a mountain of sense hanging upon every tittle of it, whence may be gathered flowers and phrases to polish our speeches with, even sound words, that have a healing property in them, far above all filed phrases of human elocution.” (Thomas Adams)

“‘I hate and abhor lying,’ what is false; especially false religion and idolatry.” (E.W. Bullinger) “Slight hatred of a sinful course is not sufficient to guard us against it.” (Thomas Manton) “In the earlier part of this psalm, David in the recollects of his own sin had prayed, ‘Remove from me the way of lying,’ and the Lord had indeed answered his prayer, for he now declares his utter loathing of every false way… And we see, in some measure, the instrument by which the Holy Spirit wrought the change: ‘But Thy law do I love;’ (163)… The heart must have some holier object of its affection to fill up the void, or there will be no security against a relapse into sin! I might talk for ever on the sin, the disgrace, and the danger of lying, and though at the time and for a time my words might have some influence, yet, unless the heart be filled with the love of God and of God's law, the first temptation would prove too powerful. The Bible teaches us this in a variety of ways. God says to Israel, not only ‘cease to do evil,’ but, ‘learn to do well.’ And still more pointedly does the apostle, when he was warring against drunkenness, say, ‘Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,—but be filled with the Spirit.’” (Barton Bouchier)

“’Seven times a day I praise You.’ “Mahometans pray five times a day; those of Morocco six times. Papists foolishly and superstitiously allege this text for their seven Canonical hours.” (John Trapp)

“But we [who obey by the Spirit, not the letter] have often seen that seven was a number expressing perfection, completion, etc., among the Hebrews; and that it is often used to signify many, or an indefinite number, see Proverbs 24:16; Leviticus 26:28. And here it may mean no more than that his soul was filled with the spirit of gratitude and praise.” (Matthew Poole)— “because of Your righteous judgments.” (164)

“‘Great peace [shalom], signifying not only ‘peace,’ but also perfection, wholeness, prosperity, tranquillity, healthfulness, safety, the completion and consummation, of every good thing.” (Thomas Le Blanc)— “’have those’— or shall be to them; for the verb being not expressed— ‘who love Your torah.’ Peace seems fleeting, even for the saints. “Although they may meet with some disturbance, yet their end shall be shalom, as is said, Psalms 37:37.” (Poole) “The fruit of righteousness shall be shalom, Isaiah 32:17, even the peace of God, the joy of faith, a heaped up happiness.” (Trapp)— “’And nothing causes them to stumble.’ (165) - Nothing shall offend them, Heb. they shall have no stumbling-block, to wit, such at which they shall stumble and fall into mischief and utter ruin, as ungodly men have, before whom God doth oft lay stumbling-blocks, or occasions of sin and destruction, as it is affirmed by God himself, Jeremiah 6:21 Ezekiel 3:20 Romans 9:33, out of Isaiah 8:14.” (Matthew Poole)’

Sabbath— “The world says: What a slave you are! you cannot have a little amusement on the Sabbath—you cannot take a Sabbath walk, or join a Sabbath tea party; you cannot go to a dance or a theatre; you cannot enjoy the pleasures of sensual indulgence—you are a slave. I answer: Christ had none of these pleasures. He did not want them: nor do we. He knew what was truly wise, and good, and happy, and he chose God's holy law. He was the freest of all beings, and yet he knew no sin. Only make me free as Christ is free—this is all I ask.” (Robert Murray M'Cheyne)

“‘Yahweh, I hope for Your salvation.’ This saying he borrowed from good old Jacob, Genesis 49:18.” (Trapp)— “’and [I have] kept’— Hebrew word שׁםרֹ shamar, signifies to keep carefully, diligently, studiously, exactly” (Thomas Brooks) — ‘Your commandments’ (166) “And hence I have hoped: 1 John 3:3 ‘Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, as God is pure.’” (Trapp) David “intendeth sincerity, not perfection, and is alledged as an evidence of ‘grace, not as a claim of merit.’ Bp. Horne.” (Thomas Scott) “Observe here how God has joined these two together, and let no man put them asunder. We cannot, upon good grounds, hope for God's salvation, unless we set ourselves to do His commandments, Revelation 22:14. But those that sincerely endeavour to do His commandments ought to keep up a good hope of the salvation; and that hope will both engage and enlarge the heart in doing them. The more lively the hope is the more lively the obedience will be.” (Matthew Henry)

He also kept God’s precepts and testimonies, concerning the Way. And now mark what was the reason that David kept them "so carefully, so sincerely, "so studiously, and so exactly. Why, the reason you have in the latter part of the verse— ‘for all my ways are before thee.’ (168) ” (Thomas Brooks) “All this joyous profession of the psalmist’s happy experience he spreads humbly before God, appealing to Him whether it is true. He is not flaunting his self-righteousness in God’s face, but gladly recounting to God’s honour all the ‘spoil’ that he has found.” (Expositor's Bible Commentary) “Now, Yahweh, you are our Father. We are the clay, and You are our potter. All of us are the work of your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8)

Morning repost- Psalm 119:169-176 Tau, ת- The End

169 Let my cry come before You, O Yahweh; give me understanding according to Your word. 170 Let my supplication come before You; deliver me according to Your word. 171 My lips shall utter praise, for You teach me Your statutes. 172 My tongue shall speak of Your promises, for all Your commandments are righteousness. 173 Let Your hand become my help, for I have chosen Your precepts. 174 I long for Your salvation, O Yahweh, and Your torah is my delight. 175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise You; and let Your judgments help me. 176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.

“The eightfold Tav. May God answer this his supplication as He has heard his praise, and interest Himself on behalf of His servant, the sheep [of His pasture] that is exposed to great danger.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “Tav is the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. Meaning mark, sign, omen, or seal, it is the symbol of truth, perfection, and completion. It represents the restoration Tikkun תיקון of all of existence… It is the idea that the Creator set in motion all of existence in order to reach a final state of perfection, the fulfillment of all of creation. It is also the completion of Truth אמת Emet.” (Walking Kabbalah) Jesus is the Aleph and Tau. Alpha and Omega. Creator and Redeemer. Prayers of the martyrs under the altar, in His name, will be heard at the end-time Judgment. Outside the holy of holies— the altar of incense— “represented work that the Israelites offered unto the Lord, the work of prayer. Scripture often likens incense to the prayers of God’s people (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8).” (R. C. Sproul)

“‘Let my cry come before You, O Yahweh;’ That is, as some will have it, ‘Let this whole preceding Psalm, and all the petitions... therein contained, be highly accepted in heaven.’”(Trapp) — “’give me understanding according to the word,’ (169) whereby I may both know and perform my duty in all particulars.” (Matthew Poole) This was the prayer of Solomon (1Ki 3:9), and we are told that it pleased the Lord, and as a reward he added temporal prosperity, which the young king had not asked. Yet Solomon meant less by his prayer than his father David did.” (C. H. Spurgeon) He seemed to lacked the zeal of his father's religion.

“‘Let my supplication come before You; deliver me according to Your word’ (170) or promise’ (imrathka). “The first cry is for inward understanding, the second supplication is for outward deliverance. The deliverance follows as the consequence of obtaining understanding (Psalms 90:12-15).” (A. R Faussett) "God had ‘promised’ to deliver all those who in the day of trouble [greatest in degree] should call upon Him.” (The Pulpit Commentary) Compare Roman 10:11-13— For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”(Isaiah 28:16) For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”(Joel 2:32a)

“‘My lips shall utter praise,’ as “a fountain casting out waters” (Trapp); for You teach me Your statutes.’ (171) I will praise thee in proportion as I learn thy precepts or thy law… Each new degree of knowledge will excite a corresponding desire to praise thee. This will be true of all who love God, while this life lasts, and forever. The ever-increasing knowledge of God will excite ever-increasing praise.” (Albert Barnes) "[And] my toungue shall speak of Your promises, for all Your commandments are righteousness.’ (172) I know; “and, therefore, I will speak of it.” (Albert Barnes) “Every Christian, as he is a priest to offer sacrifice unto God, so is he a prophet to teach his brethren; for unto us all stands that commandment, ‘Edify one another in their most holy faith.’ But, alas, ye shall see many Christians now, who at their tables, and in their companies, can speak freely upon any subject; only for spiritual matters, which concern the soul, there they are dumb, and cannot say with David, ‘My tongue shall speak of thy word.’” (William Cowper)

“’Let Your hand become my help’ to enable me “to do what I have promised.” (John Trapp) “‘Salvation,’ by the ‘hand,’ or arm of Jehovah, (which is often in Scripture a title of Messiah,) hath been the object of the hopes, the desires, and ‘longing’ expectations of the faithful, from Adam to this hour, and will continue so to be until He, who hath already visited us in great humility, shall come again in glorious majesty to complete our redemption and take us to Himself.” (George Horne)— "for I have chosen Your precepts.’ (173) like Martha’s sister — “Mary, who ‘chose the good part’ (Luke 10:42).” (Jamieson. Faussett, Brown)

“’I long for Your salvation, O Yahweh.' which “consists in emancipation from the curse of the law, deliverance from the anger of God. It is a salvation with the possession of the blessings of forgiveness, of renewal, of progressive sanctification, of preparation for the joys in the immediate presence of God and of the Lamb.” (J. Clayton, M. A.) — "'and Your torah is my delight.’ (174) “It is not enough for a man to say, he longs and desires to be saved, unless he makes a conscience to use the appointed means to bring him thereunto. It had been but hypocrisy in David to say he longed for salvation, if his conscience had not been able to witness with him that ‘the law was his delight’… Who will imagine that a man wishes for health, who either despiseth or neglects the means of his recovery? God hath in His own wisdom appointed a lawful means for every lawful thing; this means, being obediently used, the comfortable obtaining of the end may be confidently looked for; the means being not observed, to think to attain to the end is mere presumption. God will deliver Noah from the flood, but Noah must be ‘moved with reverence,’ and ‘prepare the ark’ (Hebrews 11:7), or else he could not have escaped. He would save Lot from Sodom, but yet Lot must hurry him out quickly, and not look behind him till he have entered Zoar: Genesis 19:17. He was pleased to cure Hezekiah of the plague, but yet Hezekiah must take ‘a lump of figs, and lay it upon his boil:’ Isaiah 38:21. He vouchsafed to preserve Paul and company at sea, yet the sailors must ‘abide in the ship,’ else ye cannot be saved, saith Paul: Act 27:31.” (Samuel Hieron)

“‘Let my soul live,’ that is, myself: the soul is put for the whole man ‘and it shall praise You.’ (175) The fruit of all God's benefits to profit us, and praise God.’ (Manton)— “‘and let Your judgments help (or succour) me.’ God's hand, Psalms 119:173, and God's word afford him succour; the two are involved in one another, the word is the medium of His hand.” (Keil & Delitzsch) “It is a very profitable doctrine, when things in the world are in a state of great confusion, and when our safety is in danger amid so many and varied storms, to lift up our eyes to the judgments of God, and to seek a remedy in them.” (John Calvin)— “‘I have gone astray like a lost’— “perishing. cp. Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10” (E.W. Bullinger)— sheep,’ apparently all forsaken in the midst of a host of enemies; ‘seek Your servant,’ to bring him back to rest and shelter; ‘for I do not forget Your commandments’. (176) On the side of men there is ever erring and getting lost; on the part of God there is ever seeking and finding and taking home to the enjoyment of eternal blessings.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “A sheep, wandered from the fold, cast into a pit, entangled in thorns and briers, or surrounded by beasts of prey, wounded and bruised, and wholly unable to rescue itself, or escape destruction; had it the powers of reason and speech, and did it see the tender shepherd at a distance, might be supposed as earnestly calling to him in similar language.” (Thomas Scott)

At last, “When David was driven from his regal throne by the rebellious arms of Absalom see what his desire and hope were, 2Sa 15:25: The king said unto Zadok, ‘Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me again, and shew me both it, and His habitation.’ Mark, not shew me my crown, my palace, but the ark, the house of God.” (William Guruall) But yea, Higher still— “’Seek Your servant’— Come to the wilderness, take me up, and carry me to the flock.” (Adam Clarke) Gathered me with the rest at Your Coming, as promised. (Isaiah 11:12; Mark 13:27) “I have Thy mark.” (Matthew Henry) “I may perhaps have gone out of the way, and heedlessly followed my own devices; still, at the approach of Evening, when the faithful Shepherd counts His lambs, He will mark my absence, and graciously seek and bring me back...” (Christian Striver)— from my grave in the earth. “’For I do not forget thy commandments.’ The root of the matter is still in me, I am recallable, and ready to hear thy voice, John 10:3.” (John Trapp)- that of the Archangel or trump of God.